Cargo at the port. Kifwa and KPA have reached a compromise over the procedure of reimbursing transit port storage charges that accrued due to last year’s post election violence.
April 30, 2008: Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) have reached a compromise over the procedure of reimbursing transit port storage charges that accrued due to last year’s post election violence.
Now KPA says that an agent can apply for a waiver and reimbursement then notify the cargo owner later as opposed to its earlier stand that the owner must be notified first. A misunderstanding had existed between the two bodies over the mode KPA had taken in refunding the importers, with Kifwa accusing KPA for usurping its role. Kifwa had taken exception to KPA’s stand that application of refund of port storage charges paid by importers between January 4 and 31 this year should be made by individual importers, while Kifwa wanted KPA to give its members the refund. The parastatal had further stood on the ground that request or waiver of port storage on consignments that were ready for delivery in all aspects between the same period but were still in the port were only to be considered on individual merit. “KPA should understand that we are the bridge between them and the importers.
We are the ones who go to them to lodge documents and we sometimes use our own money to clear these cargoes before the importers pay us. When they insist that the importer should be the one to apply for the waiver or refund they are usurping our role.
Let KPA give us the refund and accept waiver application for such cargoes from us and whatever happens between us and the importer is not their concern,” stated Kifwa Mombasa chairman Peter Otieno.Kifwa have also been complaining over the snail pace at which KPA was conducting the reimbursements saying it was taking too long.
The waiver was a directive by the minister for Transport, Chirau Ali Mwakwere, during his visit to countries which uses the port of Mombasa in January in a bide to assure them that everything had returned to its normalcy in the country and that they could continue to conduct their business with the port of Mombasa. The importers from the landlocked nation had complained over accrued port charges for transit cargo saying that the country’s post election mayhem was to blame, and that it was wrong to penalise the importers. The importers had argued that they were not able to pick up their consignments for fear of insecurity on the Kenyan roads. The Government agreed to waive the accrued port storage charges and KPA insisted that it would only refund the importer directly and not through the clearing agents.
And last week during the KPA’s stakeholders meeting, the parastatal financial controller accepted the request by Kifwa that its members could apply and receive the refund or be granted the waiver on behalf of the importer. “I agree with your (Kifwa) request that you can submit the application on behalf of the importer. But we would still send a copy to the importer over the refund,” ruled the financial controller, Mr Alex Kazonga. The parastatal last week had raised a concern that some unscrupulous clearing agents could pocket the refund hence the whole intention of impressing the importers would not be achieved. “I don’t want to start spilling beans here but you and I know that not all clearing agents are straightforward. There are some who would not even inform their clients that we (KPA) have reimbursed them,” said Mr Kazonga.
Last week KPA had revealed that it had already spent over Sh60 million in the whole exercise and that the figures were projected to rise to Sh100 million. But KPA assures the importers affected that the directive of the minister would be followed to the letter and urged them to move with speed and apply for the same.
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Source: BUSINESS DAILY
Written by Ben Sanga
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