Govt. mulls to raise port charges

The government is looking to revise the tariff charges upwards for the services provided at the Colombo port, Cabinet Spokesperson and Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

Samarasinghe said the charges for the services provided by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and Jaya Container Terminal would be raised “in keeping with the present market trends and enabling to provide a more qualitative service and to introduce a uniform method of tariff rates among the harbours”.

He said a proposal by him to this end was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.  

The Colombo port is a key transshipment hub mainly for Indian traffic. 

During the first eight months of 2018, the Colombo port handled 3.68 million TEUs, up 20.4 percent year-on-year (YoY), while the total container handing for the period rose 15.6 percent YoY to 4.64 million TEUs.