New system of clearing goods at Mombasa port hinders trade

May 21, 2008: Finance minister Amos Kimunya has been urged to appoint a team to review the cargo clearance system at the Port of Mombasa. Players in the shipping industry said the new system of verifying cargo using customs entry form C63 and shipping line documents, known as delivery order, was cumbersome, time wasting and a hindrance to trade.

To avert the delay headache and make sure that a consignment reaches an importer in time, a section of stakeholders have proposed that clearing and forwarding agents be allowed to pay KPA charges before the arrival of vessels and also before verification of cargo to avoid the blame game between KPA and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) National vice chairman Peter Mambembe, wants Mr Kimunya and his Transport counterpart, Chirau Ali Mwakwere, to intervene and resolve some nagging problems at the port, which include cargo delays.

“Importers are paying unnecessary accrued storage charges when the mistake is not theirs. We have proposed severally that KPA should use its own official documents known as Mombasa Port Release Order (MPRO) to trace and place containers stopped for verification by the customs Risk Management Unit (RMU). The time and date the container has been placed down for verification should be indicated on the MPRO. This will show who is the cause of the delay,” said Mr Mambembe.

Deaf earsHe said complaints by importers and clearing and forwarding agents have been falling on the deaf ears of KRA and KPA officials, and that Mr Kimunya should now intervene. He said such delays inconvenience clearing agents after the seven day-delivery-order period granted by the shipping lines on domestic cargo expires, thereby forcing them to go back to the shipping lines to seek an extension. KPA had introduced revised documentation and cargo clearing procedures effective from April 28.

It was envisaged that the new procedure would have significantly reduced dwell time of containers at the port.William Kiyemba, the representative of the Ugandan business community on port matters, also concurred with the KIFWA official, saying that the new system had not had marked improvement since its introduction. Instead, he said, port customers were experiencing delays in processing documents at the one-stop-centre. The cost incurred during the scanning of containers, following the introduction of new cargo documentation and clearing procedures, had been passed on to importers, he said.

“The situation has become pathetic and cumbersome and there is need for a speedy solution because we cannot be talking about the same thing in every meeting we hold with KPA and other stakeholders,” Mr Kiyemba said.