By Janet Silvera, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA IS uncompetitive as a port of call, according to one Montego Bay shipper. Exorbitant travelling costs and high subsistence rates make up the ingredients in a can of worms opened up by a Montego Bay ship owner, as he cries foul against the fees charged by pilots employed to the Port Authority of Jamaica.
The businessman at the centre of the controversy is Norman Ramcharan, who owns and operates a 386 tonne ship, which is based in the second city. He has complained to The Gleaner that he is being charged 300 per cent more in fees by Port Authority pilots than their counterparts in the rest of the region.
Mr. Ramcharan, who imports lumber, said he is forced to pay US$317.00 (J$19,000.00) in travelling cost for a pilot and a further US$75.00 (J$4,500.00) as subsistence, each time his ship docks at Montego Freeport.
In addition, he pays a US$49.00 pilotage fee, US$4.79 cess and a US$60.00 boat fee, and these charges are one way. If the boat departs the same day, he has to pay another fee on his way out, to the same pilot. He pays a total of US$1,014.00 in and out of Jamaica to the Port Authority of Jamaica.
According to Harbour Master Captain Hopeton Delisser, the principal ship owners have agreed on certain rates with the port agents, and this is how the rates are set.
However, when The Gleaner checked with port agents Nelson's Shipping, Custos Clarence Nelson refuted this claim, saying they do not set the rates. "The rates are set by the Port Authority."
In justification of the travelling rates being paid to the pilots, Captain Delisser said there are certain out of pocket expenses that the pilots have to pay and that is why the rates are the way they are.
Research was conducted on the rates in other Caribbean islands and it was revealed that the fee in and out of Cuba was a mere US$300.00, in the Dominican Republic the rate is US$400.00 and US$300.00 in the Honduras, a reflection of a large gap to what is being charged in Jamaica.
But the captain does not think the rates here are higher than everybody else's. He said, "the last time we looked at it (the rates), it wasn't the case."
Mr. Ramcharan said he fears he will put of business by the costs and would be forced to send home a workforce of the 100 persons he now employs.
"When you speak with the Port Authority about your concerns, they get upset and instead of trying to work out the situation, you are sabotaged," he said. In response to this allegation, Captain Delisser said they are not in the business of sabotaging anybody, "and why would we pick on this man anyway."
When The Gleaner tried to ascertain the reason why pilots were not based in Montego Bay, Captain Delisser said, the Port Authority operates a centralised office that supplies pilots to all outstations.
Putting an office in Montego Bay may bring on unnecessary administrative expenses, Captain Delisser said. "After all, we are a poor country, you know."
