By McPherse Thompson, Asst. Financial News Editor
IMPORTERS WILL be required to pay between 20 and 33 per cent more to have their containers stripped for processing by Customs Officers at the state-owned Container Services Limited in Kingston as of April 14.
The fees are to be increased from $6,250 to $8,000, a 28 per cent increase for a 20-foot container; from $7,500 to $9,000, a 20 per cent increase for a 40-foot container, and a new fee of $10,000 for a 45-foot container, an increase of just over 33 per cent. The 45-foot containers usually attract the same fee as a 40-foot.
Hendricks Porter, president of the Customs Brokers Association of Jamaica (CBAJ), who sits on the board of Container Services, said the increase has been pending for some time.
The new fee structure is being implemented even as other brokers draw attention to the long-standing problem of personnel having to line up from as early as 3 a.m. outside the offices of Container Services to register to ensure the timely processing of containers importers have contracted them to clear from the wharves.
"That is the system that is operating now, in these dangerous times," said one broker, who preferred not to be identified by name.
Mr. Porter admitted that the problem of brokers and their clerks having to line up in the wee hours of the morning to get containers stripped "has been happening for many years." He said changes have been recommended to the board of Container Services, headed by Financial Secretary Shirley Tyndall, but to date the system continues to operate in the same manner. He says Container Services is now being computerised so that registration can be done by computers instead of manually.
However, there is no guarantee that a computerised system of registration will prevent brokers and their clerks from having to attend on Container Services from that early.
According to the customs broking source, Container Services has also notified persons in the sector that as of Monday, April 7, certain measures will be implemented at the stripping station, among them the refusal to admit brokers or their clerks on the premises unless they are in receipt of identification issued by the Jamaica Customs Department. It has also reiterated that its opening hour would be from 8 a.m. and that registration of containers to be processed would start at that time.
However, the source said "this will not change the modus operandi where brokers and their clerks will have to line up outside the station from 3 a.m. in an effort to put themselves first in line to be registered as early as possible" and by extension get containers stripped.
Brokers, he said, believed that a system should be put in place whereby containers are stripped and examined at Container Services on a first-come-first-served basis in terms of the containers and not individuals. The system they have in place "doesn't work," said the source, adding that those are among the "fundamental weaknesses still existing in the management at the container stripping station."
Commander Richard Harvey, managing director of Container Services Limited, was unavailable for comment yesterday and the Jamaica Customs Department said it could shed no light on the issue. Container Services is responsible for providing the manpower and equipment to remove imported goods from the containers, stack them in warehouses for Customs examination and them repack them in containers.
