Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) has condemned the imposition of several surcharges by multi-national shipping liners bringing cargoes into Nigeria.
The Council, which is the port economic regulator, is particularly worried that most of the surcharges were imposed on Nigerian shippers contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
It listed some of the surcharges to include Peak Season Surcharge (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 (BAS), and Currency Adjustment Surcharge (CAS).
Hassan Bello, executive secretary, NSC, who described the surcharges as unjustifiable, said the Council would take the matter up with the Global Shippers Forum (GSF), and advised the global body to call the shipping lines and their agents to order.
Bello explained that while some of the charges were supposed to be temporary, reduced or cancelled as allowed by UNCTAD and as the situation in the ports changes, the shipping lines had maintained a permanent imposition of the charges on helpless Nigerian shippers.
According to Bello, the incidents of piracy that have nothing to do with Nigeria are given different colorations in order to ride on the risk created by increase rate of piracy to place a surcharge on cargoes coming to Nigeria.
“Everything that happens, even if it is in Togo or Benin Republic, it is attributed to have taken place in Nigeria. Even local infractions like somebody just enters the ship illegally even without weapons; it is reported as incidence of piracy in Nigeria. But, that is not piracy, it is probably robbery incident. Piracy is total command of the ship on the high sea,” Bello said.
He said the Council apart from other measures taken locally, would reach out to the Global Shippers Forum (GSF) of the African Shippers Forum (ASF) to address the issues of surcharges.
The ASF collaborates with GSF to reach out to shipping lines in different continents doing business with the West and Central African sub-region to address issues of arbitrary surcharges.
Tahir Idris, director, Special Duties of NSC, who gave an insight into the different surcharges newly introduced by shipping companies, said the shipping agencies often ignore to suspend the surcharges even with the knowledge that the situation led to the imposition of the charges had changed.
Surcharges, Idris said, are fees collected by shipping companies in addition to freight rate for bringing a cargo into Nigerian seaports.
UNCTAD provisions in its Article 16 of the code stipulates that surcharges imposed on cargo moving to and from a particular port shall be regarded as temporary and likewise shall be increased, reduced or cancelled subject to when the situation in the port changes.
“We have observed that, we hardly witness a total suspension of these surcharges as was intended to be a temporary measure, designed to bring equity in the recovery of some unexpected costs increases or losses. It seems to be permanently being deployed as it is mostly built into the freight cost from parent companies,” Idris said.
Meanwhile, shippers and freight forwarders have expressed bitterness over the rising rate of surcharges being collected on goods destined for Nigeria.
