THE Commonwealth Ports Authority is willing to meet and discuss with the Tinian Chamber of Commerce issues surrounding the imposition of wharfage fee.
“If you wish to discuss further, we’ll be glad to meet with you and members of the Tinian Chamber,” CPA said in a July 2 letter to Chamber President Philip Long.
The Chamber earlier complained about the “unfair” and “too high” wharfage fee collection.
The Chamber said the fee should be abolished to avoid “double charging.”
CPA collects $5.50 per revenue ton, which according to the Chamber was “700 percent higher” than the actual freight cost.
In the letter, CPA said wharfage rates were “carefully computed on the basis of meeting port operating costs and obligations and on anticipated cargo activities.”
It said the fee was “carefully structured by a qualified independent consultant so CPA has the ability to pay for port costs inclusive of debt service payments.”
CPA said the agency’s rates no longer meet port costs “due to an all time low in cargo volume and passengers.”
It said the port fees collected for the six months this year, plunged by 11 percent from the anticipated amount.
CPA also said that port operating costs are down to a bare minimum.
In fact, it said, overtime is not allowed unless on emergency situation and it also stopped hiring except for critical positions vacated by retiring or resigning persons.
Long said Tinian businesses are “double taxed” because items get charged upon arrival on Saipan, and charged again on Tinian.
But CPA said cargo originating within the CNMI bound for Tinian is assessed wharfage only once.
“Only Tinian port collects wharfage fees on cargo bound for Tinian as it transits Saipan or Rota,” CPA said.
Long said Tinian’s only inter-island shipping company has no scale to weigh items for shipment nor does it have a measurement scale or chart to verify volume.
“If there are no measurement capabilities at the shipper source, then how does CPA come up with the rate?” he said.
CPA said that “as far as the manner in which cargo is measured, the authority simply applies industry standards wherein cargo dimensions could easily be converted to tonnage.
CPA said the $5.50 minimum fee is applied uniformly to all ports in the CNMI and set as such “to remove administrative nightmare on collection when cargo is less than a ton.”
