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TO
assist Philippine shippers and exporters, the government
should indefinitely extend a program which reduced
wharfage fees by more than three-fourths, port users
said.
Scheduled to end July 20, the fees were discounted to
help Filipino exporters cope with a stronger peso, which
makes locally-made goods more costly when sold abroad.
Previously set at P259.70 and P391.05 per 20- and
40-foot container respectively, wharfage dues were later
cut to only P20 and P40 for 20- and 40-footers.
Despite
these appeals, Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) general
manager Oscar M. Sevilla said that he is not in favor of
continuing to charge low rates, pointing out that the
agency has already lost an estimated P3 million ever
since it imposed the new fee regime since April 20.
“I don’t
want the reduced rates. We do not have income anymore
because of the RoRo,” he said last week. He was
referring to the Roll-on/Roll-off project wherein
wharfage is not levied on cargoes loaded onto trucks
which in turn get onboard ships.
Sevilla
added that lower rates will sap the PPA’s finances and
may affect its ability to continue various projects,
including upgrading 10 local ports.
“The
impression of the people is that PPA has a lot of money.
It’s no longer true. We have 28 port projects and we
should finish that by 2008 but half of it [should be
completed] by this year. So where are we getting the
money to continue the projects?” he said.
PPA
assistant general manager for finance and administration
Aida P. Dizon said that their forgone revenues for now
are still at manageable levels or below P50 million a
month.
The port
agency’s revenues are expected to dip as the local cargo
volumes have been dropping since the start of the year.
From
January to April, volumes decreased by close to 3
percent, or about 1.3 million metric tons as both
domestic and foreign cargo decreased.
The drop
should have been higher if not for the 12-percent
increase, or about 1.06 million metric tons, of the
export component of foreign cargo, mostly semiconductors
and other electronic products.
The port
agency is scheduled to draw half of its P2-billion bonds
that it earlier floated but all proceeds will all go to
the six of its 10 big-ticket projects. |
