Vanguard Maritime Report, Wednesday September 30, 2020 Page 1& 2
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has ordered operators of bonded terminals and other terminal operators to stop collecting cargo transfer charges.
Transfer charges are imposed on cargoes moved from the terminal at the port to bonded terminal as a means of creating space at the sea port to avoid congestion.
The Council had also directed that all transfer charges collected from Consignees of cargoes transferred from seaport terminal to off -dock terminal from June 1 ,2029 to date at the instance of the shipping companies/agencies seaport terminals operators without the Consignees requesting for such transfer, must be refunded to the consignees immediately.
NSC in a statement signed by the Deputy Director Relation Officer Rakiya Zubairu, expressed concern over the deluge of complaint it received from stakeholders over arbitrary levies in container demurrage , storage and transfer charges by shipping companies, terminal operators and off dock facilities and warn that the Council will no longer tolerate such charges imposed arbitrarily without carrying the Consignees along.
It stated: ‘’All transfer charges collected from Consignees of cargoes transferred from seaport terminal to off-dock terminal from June 11 , 2020 to date , at the instance of the shipping companies/agencies, seaport terminal operators, without the Consignees requesting for such transfer, must be refunded to the Consignees immediately.
