Northport and Westport in Port Klang will raise marine charges and introduce a new rate for dangerous goods (DG) cargo from Nov 1. The hike is between 10% and 90% and has been approved and gazetted by the Port Klang Authority (PKA).
The increase, which has been requested by the terminals for a long time, is on towage, pilotage, tug boat and other related services. However, for more than a year shipping lines have been appealing to the Transport Ministry not to restructure the marine services charges as they felt it would make Port Klang less competitive.
The terminals, in a joint notification dated Oct 6 to port users, said the existing rates, which had not been revised since 1996, did not reflect current operation and investment costs incurred. For instance, the fees for tugs and berthing and unberthing have not been revised since 1966 while the pilotage dues were last amended in 1975.
The letter was signed by Northport's general manager (corporate services) Lim Han Boon and Klang Multi Terminal general manager (finance) Lim Beng Keem. It said the tariff revisions weretherefore necessary in view of the higher cost of providing the services. Industry players see the new charges as fair and reflected the infrastructure and operational costs of modern-day ports. The move would also result in transparency and simplify marine and DG charges, making it easier for shipping lines and their agents to deal with Port Klang's terminals.
According to the terminals, Port Klang tariff on the revised items will still be lower than other ports in the region despite the raise. The consolidated marine charges are based on the length overall (LOA) of a vessel per call and shall be levied for pilotage from pilot station to berth, for pilotage from berth to pilot station and towage operation during berthing and unberthing of vessel.
Checks revealed that the 50% surcharge for the hire of tugs between 6.30pm and 6.30am and the special fees for pilotage services at night (of RM65and RM99) as well as the double public holiday charge have been abolished. This is to reflect Port Klang's 24-hour, seven-day a week operations. The rates are governed by PKA's Scale of Rates, Dues and Charges By-Law 1966 which is part of the Port Authorities Act 1963. Federation of Malaysian Shipping Agencies president V. Muthiah expressed concern that the new rates would make Port Klang less competitive. "This is definitely not the right moment to impose this hike because Singapore is giving more and more incentives while we, on the other hand, are increasing our prices. "I think the government and port authorities should rethink because bunker prices have increased causing overall operations costs to go up.
"Although the new charges have already been gazetted, I don't see why it cannot be postponed to a later, more opportune, time," he said.
The Star, 25 October 2004 |
