DUE to Tinian Shipping’s non-payment of passenger fees, the Commonwealth Ports Authority would be forced to collect fees directly from the ferry passengers immediately.
CPA board member Roman Tudela, in a memorandum to CPA Executive Director Carlos Salas, said CPA needs to undertake daily collection from passengers upon resumption of the ferry operation.
The ferry resumed its operations last Saturday following a U.S. District Court order.
“Please undertake the daily passenger fee immediately so that we could begin realizing the fees from each passenger,” Tudela said.
He said the payment is required under the terminal tariff regulations.
Tudela said the company, which is required to pay the passenger fee to CPA, “has been delinquent in this respect for many years now.”
“We need to immediately put an end to this problem by directly collecting the passenger fee from each passenger that boards,” he added.
The company reportedly owes the government over $1 million in unpaid passenger fees.
During its April board meeting, the CPA board decided that in case the company failed to settle its debts with the agency in 15 days from the receipt of a demand letter, CPA would file a lawsuit and collect the fees from passengers before boarding the ferries.
“Over 15 days had passed…therefore CPA should immediately begin the collection from the people,” Tudela said.
