Containers at the Port of Mombasa. [Photo/ thebigissue.co.ke]
Clearing and forwarding agents have blamed the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for the slow movement of cargo at the Port of Mombasa.The agents argued that the taxman introduced new stringent procedures including mandatory verification which takes too long thus becoming an impediment to trade. “Cargo is coming to the port but the rate at which it is leaving is slow. The problem is that there are procedures that have been introduced which are leading to slow clearance of cargo,” said Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) chairman William Ojonyo.Addressing journalists on Thursday, Ojoyo noted that though the political stalemate experienced in the country might have led to the slow movement of cargo, there were other masked issues.“We cannot blame the political atmosphere because that is not the problem. KRA has missed its target by billions of shillings not because the ships that were calling at the port are not coming. The problem is that the cargo is taking unnecessarily long to be cleared,” added Ojonyo, as quoted by Business Daily.KRA introduced the new procedure that was adopted last year as a measure to weed out smugglers and drug traffickers taking advantage of loopholes created by more liberalised processes.Ojonyo also said that overstaying of cargo at the port has led to incurring costs of storage as the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) only gives four days allowance for free domestic cargo clearance and nine days to clear transit goods after which they start accruing storage charges.Ojonyo, however, said Kifwa would engage relevant government stakeholders to ensure that their concerns are addressed.