Exporters oppose cargo handling tariff hike plea

The Export Development Council has called on the Philippine Ports Authority to reject North Manila Harbour Port Inc.’s petition for a 37.45-percent increase in cargo handling tariff.

In a statement, the EDC said the requested tariff increase was “not only too much but unjustified and unwarranted.”

EDC vice chair Sergio Ortiz-Luis said it would be prudent for PPA to defer action on the tariff hike until a new set of PPA officials was installed by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

“NMHPI is a monopoly in domestic trade and port stakeholders have no choice but to transact business with them. Being a monopoly, it should even cut its cost rather than increase it,” said Ortiz-Luis, also president of Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport).

“MNHPI should be considered a public utility because it provides service mostly to shipping lines, which are considered public utilities. Shipping lines docking at North Harbor have no other option but to avail of MNHPI services,” according to Sulficio Tagud Jr., chair and president of the Philippine Liner Shipping Association (PLSA).

“As such, the government should not only regulate the MNHPI return on investment and profit margins but also have to make sure that no unnecessary costs are included in the computation because ultimately, the public will pay for the inefficiencies of the operator,” said Tagud in a 13-page PLSA position paper.

Using the 2014 PPA statistics where volume in Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit or TEUs—inbound and outbound Manila—was 1,043,705 with PLSA having 86 percent share on total volume carried at the North Harbor, PLSA executive director Rona Gatdula said the impact of the increase in freight tariff would translate to an additional annual stevedoring cost of P118.78 million among PLSA members.