THE suspension of demurrage charges and adoption of the Super Green Lane (SGL) process for Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) shipments are two of the top recommendations from various port stakeholders to address the logistical delays and higher transport costs stemming from the impact of the enhanced community quarantine and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marilyn Alberto, president of the Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association Inc., in an e-forum on Wednesday, April 15, 2020, called for the mandated suspension of demurrage charges for shipments stuck at the port. She said charges are incurred due to slow department order issuances, bank processing and customs clearance.
She also urged for the retroactive suspension of demurrage charges on all shipments affected as well as the extension of the free storage period from the current five days to 10 days.
The Export Development Council, according to e-forum moderator Henry Basilio, had similarly asked the government to waive the demurrage charges. This was also supported by Charlie Villasenor, chairman of the Procurement and Supply Institute of Asia, who said that exporters and importers, rather than be penalized, “need to be incentivized” to remove their containers.
Lawyer Vincent Maronilla, spokesperson of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), in the same dialogue said it is not the BOC but the Philippine Ports Authority which has an exclusive purview over the terminal fees levied by port operators.
Nonetheless, he said BOC commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero already instructed the agency’s representative to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to act on this request.
The representative, according to Maronilla was told to “raise this concern and inform the IATF that BOC strongly recommends any proposal to provide for the exemption, if not repeal, in the imposition of all storage charges, shipping charges, even charges in the movement of the containers during this time.”
Besides the suspension of port charges, the stakeholders also want the BOC to consider the adoption of the SGL process for Peza, Clark Development Corp. (CDC) and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) shipments, or what are called trans-shipments, so that these shipments are not held at the port.
“The inputs for all these entities for the Peza, SBMA, CDC locators are for export companies, and if these export companies are not able to meet the requirements of their clients which are also still operating globally, then we might just miss the chance of being able to deliver what they need and they might consider [using] other sources for these particular things that they need from our exporters,” he said.
Other recommendations raised during the e-forum include the lifting of the truck ban and number coding for trucks, promulgating guidelines to ensure that all shipping lines have sufficient container yard space for empty containers and expediting the accreditation and activation of inland container depots. (Philexport News And Features)