From The East African

More than 1,600 Uganda-bound containers of goods are stuck at the Mombasa port, Port Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has said. If these goods are not claimed, traders are bound to incur extra costs in form of demurrage or lose them through auction.

In an interview, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) commissioner customs department Richard Kamajugo said: “This is becoming a constant habit for traders not to collect their goods/cargo and they later complain when they are auctioned.”

Because of that, he said URA has been issuing notices to the traders since March to clear their goods from the port in order to avoid demurrage.

“We have so far issued over five notices since March this year in the media to remind the traders. We would have gone ahead to classify and give details of the owners but because of the expenses, we can’t afford”, Mr Kamajugo said.

The URA notice to the traders shows that as of August 4, there were a total of 1,616 Uganda bound containers. Of these, 756 are 20-feet containers while 857 are 40 feet-containers and all have stayed at the Mombasa Port between the periods of 0-90 days.

The notice further indicates that 1,332 containers have spent between 0-30 days, 57 containers between 31-60 days, 23 containers between 61-90 days while 204 containers have been at the port for more than 90 days.

KPA gives nine days for all cargo to be cleared from the port. Initially, the authority used to give 45 day; this was subsequently reduced to 15 days until the period was cut down to the current nine days. According to the authority, when nine days elapse, one would be required to pay $145 (shs381, 350) for every 40-feet container for the first day.

Read more at The East African