Review of proposed container fee hike urged

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) last week urged the conduct of a regulatory impact study on the proposed storage fee increase proposed by the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) for foreign containerized cargo, citing that the planned measure should undergo such an assessment as mandated by law.

Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. made the recommendation in a letter dated Nov. 8 and addressed to PPA general manager Jay Santiago.

“This is to prevent causing undue regulatory harm that might arise from the higher charges.

As proposed, we are already seeing the immediate harm they will cause to shippers and the economy in general,” Ortiz-Luis said in the letter.

The Philexport official also pointed out that a major policy like this should initially go through a study as required under Republic Act No. 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018.

Further, the export group scored the PPA for its failure to provide industry players and stakeholders with a copy of the proposed order, saying that they had to rely on information gathered during the public consultation held last month.

“We were informed that the deadline for the position paper is five days after the hearing on Oct. 18. However, that assumes that PPA has already provided us with a copy of the proposal,” read a part of Philexport’s letter.

“However, for record purposes, please note that as of this writing, we have not received this document, which should have been the basis of our position despite our repeated email request for a copy,” it added, highlighting that their current position was made based on the pieces of information that were quickly flashed during the consultation held through Zoom.

Aside from an evaluation of the proposed regulation, Ortiz-Luis also recommended that no fees should be imposed in situations when containers overstay due to reasons beyond the shipper’s control.Likewise, he recommended the exclusion of national and local holidays in counting the days to be charged beyond the free storage period.

Further, he said that rate of increase should be based on the average inflation level recorded since the last fee adjustment, as well as exerting pressure on shipping lines to put up their respective yards for parking containers or to keep track of container yards with available storage space. INQ