Stakeholders in the cargo clearing and forwarding business are planning to write a memo to the Government, detailing their concerns.
An Aerial view Kenya Ports Authority in Mombasa.
This comes after the Kenya Revenue Authority ( KRA) came up with a raft of measures aimed at speeding up cargo clearance at the Mombasa Port.
KRA has indicated that it will upgrade the electronic Simba Tradex system, allowing for faster cargo movement at the port.
For a long time, this system’s performance has been fluctuating impacting negatively on the time that it takes not only to up load the entries and any other transaction. “But the commissioner does not take responsibility for the storage incurred by agents or importers who end up paying huge amounts of money in terms of storage to the freight station owners,” said William Ojonyo, Managing Director, Keynote Logistics Limited.
Those in the cargo movement business are urging for a solution on who takes responsibility on such occasions. This will ease the pressure on agents and importers.
KRA is also working on a plan that will allow all export cargo to be taken to the freight station before eventually getting to the port.
By Jackson Okoth, The Standard
