Overstayed Uganda cargo gets waiver at Mombasa
Cargo at the Mombasa port. Ugandan traders are on the spot for choking the Mombasa port with thousands of uncollected cargo containers. FILE PHOTO
Kampala. Ugandan goods that had overstayed at the port of Mombasa have finally been granted a waiver by the Kenyan government.
In a notice to traders and importers, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) informs traders that they have from February 15 until April 15 (60 days) to enjoy this waiver.
“All such cargo that will not have been removed from the port by April 15, 2015, when the period of the waiver expires will be deemed abandoned and auctioned in accordance with the East African Community Customs Management Act,” the notice reads. The waiver had been proposed at the eighth edition of Northern Corridor Integration Projects Summit in Nairobi in December last year. It has since been going through several procedures in Kenya and finally has been granted the greenlight.
Mr Everest Kayondo, the Chairperson of the Kampala City Traders Association, told Daily Monitor he was upbeat about the move to waive charges for that period.
“This is good for our traders who for one reason or another have failed to pick or clear their goods from Mombasa,” he says.
Once goods are cleared at the port, owners are required to pick them. If the goods stay, then they are stored. The storage facilities do not come for free.
Mr Kayondo said storage costs can be between $20 and $50 for each container per day. Additionally, when goods are not cleared, they stay in the premises at the port. This also attracts some charges.
“The accumulated demurrage charges can be higher than the value of goods so traders will just end up abandoning them,” he adds.
However this waiver is only for goods that were cleared by the port authorities before end of November 2014.
U-turn from URA
This move is a u-turn from the URA and the Kenya Ports Authority.
A month back, URA had warned owners of overstayed containers and warned that if these goods were not cleared then they would be auctioned.
The Daily Monitor had in January reported that at least 3,698 Uganda-bound containers were stuck at the port. Of these, 330 containers have been stuck at the port for at least 90 or more days.
