Treasury CS Henry Rotich with KRA commissioner general John Njiraini at a press briefing in Nairobi on Monday /ENOS TECHE
The Kenya Revenue Authority has begun the roll out of the Pre-arrival Cargo Clearance System, in a move aimed at easing congestion at the Port of Mombasa.
Importers are now required to clear their cargo before the vessel docks at the port, an initiative that will speed up movement of cargo from the Port of Mombasa to the intended destinations.
This will be a major boost to the region’s economy, especially the industrial sector which depends on imports for their raw materials and other goods, including essential supplies to the market.
KRA commissioner general John Njiraini yesterday described the move as “a very important step” in the authority’s quest to make Mombasa Port more attractive, and reduce the cost of doing business for investors.
“We want to take the process a couple of steps back so that the lodging of documents and the payment of duties and other levies are paid before cargo arrives. By the time the Cargo arrives at the Port, the importer is in a position to take charge and remove the cargo,”
He said the move will help importers from paying demurrage charges, accurued when vessels dock for longer periods at the port.
Njiraini said the authority is fully committed to the implementation of the 2014 Mombasa Port Charter.
The charter requires 70 per cent of cargo imported through the port of Mombasa be cleared under the Pre-arrival Cargo Clearance System by 2017.
Under the system, importers can now lodge clearing documents and process them up to seven days before arrival of a vessel.
It is expected to reduce container dwell time– the time cargo remains in a terminal before being evacuated – currently at 4.3 days, which is an improvement from 5.3 days in 2015.
Njiraini spoke in Mombasa after holding a consultative meeting with executives from the shipping industry at the KPA.
He was accompanied by commissioner of customs Julius Musyoka and KRA Southern Region Coordinator Nicholas Kinoti.
“We have agreed to start the process of implementing the system. There are a couple of issues that we need to look at in terms of the supply chain and we have agreed to meet in a months’ time ,essentially we will have addressed issues to make it possible for them to clear their cargo before it arrives,’’he said.
The commencement marks the end of a two years’ wait. The initiative failed to pick in 2014, blamed on importers’ failure to embrace the system.
If the system peaks, it will be a major boost for the region’s leading port which recorded a 1.4 per cent growth on cargo throughput in the first half of 2016, registering a total 13.406 million tonnes, up from 13.218 million tonnes in a similar period in 2015.
“The port witnessed an overall positive performance in the first half of the year compared to last year,” managing director Catherine Mturi-Wairi told port stakeholders in Nairobi last month.
KRA has also shelved trans-shipment bonds allowing shipping lines to lodge their own entries, a move likely to boost KPA’s trans-shipment cargo business.
Source: The Star

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