By Adedapo Adesanya
The House of Representatives has disclosed that it will summon the European Community Ship Owners Association (ESCA) due to the recent hike in Peak Period Surcharge (PSS) on containers set for Nigeria.
Over the past few weeks, shippers have been complaining about the hike in PSS, which in addition to ocean tariff rates as well as bunker-related surcharges, security-related surcharges, terminal handling charges, among others have spiked the cost of shipping in Nigeria.
The PSS was $200 but jerked to between $1,000 and $1,500 per container, a situation that has drawn outrage from importers.
In an interview with a national daily in Abuja, the House Committee Chairman on Ports and Harbour, Mr Datti Garba Mohammed, said the 400 per cent PSS hike by the foreign shippers on goods headed to Nigeria was illegal and against the agreement earlier entered into with the Union of African Shippers Council.
He said, “We are in the midst of COVID-19 which has impacted the economy of the whole world. Suddenly, the European Community Ship Owners Association just imposed a unilateral increase in surcharges which they called peak season surcharge.
“This surcharge is about 400 per cent increment. This is aside from other charges that exist. This was done unilaterally, without consulting their host, the Nigerian Shippers Council, and other authorities that have to do with that.”
He said the economy will be deeply affected due to loss of revenue and inflation from the high cost of the imported goods.
“So, as a parliament, we feel the peak season surcharge is illegal. We have written to all the shipping companies operating in Nigeria. We are inviting them to come and explain the rationale for the unilateral increment,” he further said.
The Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) had also previously written to ECSA describing the surcharges as economic sabotage. They noted that the surcharges were insensitive and discriminatory since such surcharges were not imposed on shippers in other neighbouring countries of Ghana, Togo and Benin Republic.
The body noted that it was wrong to have introduced such surcharges at a time the economy is just trying to recover from the effect of the coronavirus pandemic.
The NSC had last year identified about eight surcharges being imposed on shippers in Nigeria and other neighbouring countries with a negative impact on the economies.
The surcharges include: PSS; extra risk insurance (ERI)/carrier security fee (CSF) surcharge; congestion surcharge (CS); freight tax surcharge (FTS); operations cost recovery (OCR); low sulphur surcharge (LSS); Bunker adjustment surcharge (B.A.F) and C.A.F. (currency adjustment surcharge).
