Rs.5bn worth of goods detained by Customs stuck in Port’s terminals, warehouses

A total of 89 containers worth about Rs.5 billion have been detained by the customs and stored in the Port’s terminals and warehouses for many years and hence it has not been possible to collect any port fee for those containers, Ports Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.

The details were revealed at a discussion held at the Ministry recently. Due to this, the Ports Authority has had to face a huge financial loss and a huge administrative problem due to the storage of space in warehouses and terminals, the officials of the Port Authority pointed out.

There are 12 containers of arecanuts detained in 2015, 39 containers of basmati rice detained in 2019, 15 containers of tiles detained in 2020, five containers of auto spare parts detained in 2013, 4 containers of textiles and stationery detained in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and 4 containers of alcohol and ethanol stored in the Port’s terminals.

The ports Authority officials pointed out that the Ports Authority should charge a minimum of Rs.2,445 million as ground charges from these containers. In addition, it was revealed that around 40 cars and lorries, including 2 Benz and Range Rover cars, which have been detained since 2015, are rotting in the terminals of the Ports Authority.

The officials of the Customs Department who participated in the discussion pointed out that there are such delays in dealing with the Customs Ordinance Act. The Minister said that the Ports and Customs officials should work together to amend the outdated Customs Ordinance Act as it is necessary to carry out an efficient clearance process according to the needs of the time.

As the law does not allow the Ports Authority to recover from the money earned by Customs as warehousing fees, the Minister instructed the officials to remove the 89 containers including perishable goods within a week. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)