The Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF) has said it will review new tariffs announced by the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GPHA) before its implementation.
GPHA recently announced that tariffs on imports and exports of cargo will see an increase at the Tema and Takoradi ports from March this year.
According to GPHA, port duties on cargo will from March cost $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit, stevedoring charges will be $15 per twenty-foot equivalent unit, and craneage and terminal handling charges will be $5 per twenty-foot equivalent unit each.
However, Vice Chairman of GIFF, William Turkson reacting to the news, said deliberations on the newly announced tariffs will made to address potential challenges that may come with it.
“We’ve been expecting an increment in port tariffs. Last year, somewhere around September and October, there was a proposed increment, and we said we weren’t in favour of the proposed increment at that time because of COVID and other related issues. They came back to us in December, and we asked them to carry on with the implementation of that proposed increment,” he said.
“In terms of its implementation, of course, there’ll be deliberations. We’ll have a look at it and the areas that we are not too comfortable with, we’ll send it to them. So before March, we should have been able to come to a conclusion on the tariffs,” he said.
The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority has for years, announced increments on charges at the Tema and Takoradi ports.
A letter dated May 24, 2019, signed by the Chief Finance Officer of the Meridian Port Services (MPS) Sunil Bansal, suggested there had been previous communication between the GPHA and MPS, indicating that MPS had requested a 10.9 per cent increase in tariffs for its new Terminal 3, which was expected to go live by June 28, 2019.
The increment according to MPS; was in line with provisions of the Deed of amendment No.1 dated 12th June 2015.
The new tariff if approved, was to represent an increase of 20 percent since 2015. But industry players who were not enthused about the move, kicked against it by staging numerous protests.
