The Nigerian Shippers Council has threatened to sanction any shipping company or terminal operators that are still collecting port charges which were recently outlawed by the minister of transport, Alhaji Isa Bio.
The minister had recently ordered immediate stoppage of the collection of seven charges namely: service charges, bank charge, turn over charge, tally clerks charge, port administration charge, ISPS charge and sorting charge; all collected from importers through their licensed agents.
But, addressing media men at the corporate head office of the Council, its executive secretary, Capt. Adamu Biu confirmed that reports from a monitoring team confirmed that the outlawed charges were still being collected from hapless importers by some shipping companies and concessionaires.
According to him, “the monitoring team has brought to the notice of the Council the flouting of the directives of the honourable minister of transport by some shipping companies and terminal operators who have continued to levy some of the abrogated charges on consignees”.
He confirmed that investigations into the findings have commenced and that appropriate action would be taken against any concessionaire or shipping company that is found to be guilty of still collecting the charges.
Prior to last week’s confirmation, there had been insinuations that the minister’s directives were not obeyed by most of the shipping companies and terminal operators.
The minister had after considering the report of the ministerial committee on review of these charges and after a meeting with stakeholders including terminal operators, freight forwarders, shipping companies ordered that collection of the seven charges be stopped with effect From March 3, 2009.
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