Press Center | Freight Shipping Logistics News

Even though the average cargo stay at the port of Mombasa has significantly been cut, some importers and clearing and forwarding agents have a different story. They are opposed to the new cargo valuation claiming that it will keep their goods longer at the private Container Freight Stations (CFSs) that are meant to free the port of congestion. Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) says the average container dwell time stands at 7.3 days in this year against 13.1 days last year, reflecting an improvement of 44.3 per cent or 5.8 days. "This is mainly attributed to entrenchment of 24/7 working schedule and embracing of more CFSs," says KPA managing director Mr James Mulewa. Container vessels turnaround time recorded a significant improvement of 3.0 days in the second quarter of this year from 4.5 days recorded same period last year. Warehouse rent KRA this week reiterated that it was mandatory that a certificate of value (C52) duly signed by importers should be submitted together with other relevant supporting documents for customs clearance. In public notices in the dailies, Commissioner of Customs Services Wambui Namu said failure to provide the C52, clearance of imported goods would not be possible. At the same time, she noted that there has been a delay by importers and clearing agents in removing cargo from the various release points and warned that KRA would not waiver of warehouse rent. "In line with the provisions of the East African Community Customs Management Act 2004, any cargo that remains uncleared after 21 days will automatically attract customs warehouse rent, for which Kenya Revenue Authority will not grant waiver," she said. Meanwhile, the port users warned that higher valuations of imported containers and vehicles may scare away importers from Mombasa port.
Clearing and forwarding agents say importers cannot budget for profit margins and benefits of reduced prices in the international market cannot trickle down to consumers following uplifted values of goods to raise duties. "Duty on imported containers and vehicles are almost twice for the last five months owing to raised valuations," complained a senior clearing and forwarding agent Peter Otieno. Otieno, said they have been directly affected since some importers have abandoned containers or vehicles or reduced imports. Costly hurdle "Goods take long to be cleared especially at the verification stage where there are several referrals which delay the process by five days to two weeks," he said. If goods are abandoned at the port, agents who act for importers do not earn commissions. Several verifications could be done on goods and referrals made to the Customs Number 5 office at the port leading to accumulation of storage charges for the goods. Clearing and forwarding agents say verification has become a tough and costly hurdle as alternation of documents attracts huge penalties. "Alternation of documents following typing errors has become costly. It used to be $ 10 (Sh760) but it now attracts as high as Sh60,000," said an agent. The agent showed Move It documents indicating that a container has been detained over valuation queries.The container has attracted Sh300,000 storage charges at a Mombasa private CFSs and could end up being abandoned. "Goods are bought in the international market using a letter of credit through banks and if their values are uplifted, then consumer prices go up. China has reduced prices owing to the global economic recession but this cannot be passed over to Kenyan consumers," said the agent.