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Stakeholders okay reduction of shipping charges

By on November 22, 2014

The directive by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) to terminal operators and shipping companies to drop their charges at the ports has been approved by stakeholders who attended the Tuesday meeting convened by the Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar.
At the end of the meeting, which lasted for 105 minutes,  it was decided that the role of the Nigeria Shippers Council as the commercial regulator of the port system must be recognised.
Present at the meeting were the  Minister of Transport,  Senator Idris Umar, the National Presidents of Association of Nigerian licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA),  National Association of Government Approved  Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), National Council of Managing Directors of  Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), Representatives of Nigeria Shippers Council,  Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), SA to the Minister on Maritime Affairs, Representatives of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, APMT  Limited, among others.
The stakeholders  said “the status quo be maintained as effected  by invoking powers inherent in the Act of Parliament establishing the shippers council, upon which it returned charges to the pre- 2009 levels.”
A representative of the Bureau for Public Enterprise, BPE told the terminal operators and shipping companies opposing the decision of the Council that it has powers to  take decisions of the affected charges.
The official also said that the shipping service providers cannot ignore such established powers, including presidential directive from the President on such trade matters.
Stakeholders who spoke at the Kaduna Hall of  Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja venue of the meeting,  said this was  done because of the “unwholesome practices in the Ports system, arbitrariness and the fact that the pricing mechanism of services in the ports, needs to be established/benchmarked”.
The stakeholders agreed that the Progressive storage charge has  “no known legal basis, neither is it practised anywhere in the world.
The meeting  also decided that a standing committee of critical stakeholders be established to meet every month to brainstorm on the brought-up operational challenges in the ports for discussions.

It was agreed that decisions arrived at, at such meetings will be passed on to the Nigeria Shippers Council, to engage relevant stakeholders, before implementation.
The meeting also agreed that Key Performance Indicators-KPI, needs to be introduced to monitor the performances of ports operators.
The meeting equally maintained that the Nigeria Shippers’ Council consulted with stakeholders and received their  nod to reverse  some of the shipping charges  at the ports.
The Transport Minister who was  under pressure of state duties  left few minutes after the opening  remarks. The Minister handed over the proceedings to the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Shippers Council,  Barrister Hassan Bello, to chair the meeting.
Before leaving, the Minister had pleaded  with stakeholders to be open and frank in their discussions, saying no body was on his trial.
It would be recalled that the Ports Regulator about three weeks ago  reversed the Progressive Storage Charge to the pre-May 2009 rates, that was approved by the Transport Minister
The Council  had also increased  the Container Free Storage Period to seven days  instead of  three days. The Council also  increased Container Demurrage-free days to 10 days.
The regulator, had also  directed that henceforth, container deposits must be  refunded within 10 days after the empties had been returned to the  shipping companies.
The Council wanted the reduction of the charges to take effect November 3.
But the affected  terminal operators and shipping companies  went to court to restrain the Council from implementing the  order.    However on November 10, the Council went to court and the court struck out the case  brought by the Seaports Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) against the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) for non-compliance with the rules of court. But the terminal operators went back to court last Monday.

However, the Lagos Shippers Association,  a body of  importers who own  the goods in the  ports  decided to  be joined in the case between Shippers Council and the terminal operators, insisting that their members were more aggrieved than even the Shippers’ Council in the case. The case comes up December 1.

 

[ThisDay]