Transport

Clearing agents push for specific roles on the northern corridor

cars

Second hand cars at Mombasa port after being offloaded from a cargo ship. PHOTO | FILE

A task force looking into hitches in the Single Customs Territory on the Northern Corridor has proposed sharing of port clearance business to safeguard revenue and protect jobs.

Kenya agents, the team proposes, should generate the initial documentation while those from partner countries handle the rest of the work.

The Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (Kifwa) task force said allowing local agents to handle the customs entry form (T810) would give credible cargo information and assure the country’s security.

The task force chaired by William Ojonyo, which sat for four months, proposed that agents in partner states should then generate the subsequent clearance documents such as T1.

“It is safer to share responsibility with our partner states in the process of cargo handling and evacuation by allowing the Kenya agents to generate the initial document for port clearance (T810),” read the recommendations forwarded to Shipping and Maritime principal secretary Nancy Karigithu a week ago.

The task force was formed after the clearing agents pushed the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to integrate its digital network to correspond to international platforms to speed up cargo clearance at the port of Mombasa.

Under the present arrangement, all declaration of transit cargo is done by Uganda agents through Asycuda system as opposed to the Simba system that Kenya uses.

Up to 95 per cent of local agents are unable to use Asycuda, meaning that all their business is taken over by foreign recipients agents.

The KRA therefore has no intervention in the arrangement, denying the taxman warehousing tax revenue, agency fee from local customs agents and foreign permit collection.

Following the implementation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) along the northern corridor from 2013, the custom agents underwent mandatory training in use of KRA’s Simba system.

The agents have, however, complained that the Asycuda system is constantly down and cannot be accessed from Kenya.

Quality of training has also been put to question with reports that they are both erratic and rushed.

“Ninety five percent of all cargo therefore is handled and controlled by the recipient revenue authorities and the agents,” read the report. As it is, 60 per cent of cargo transiting the port of Mombasa is destined for Uganda, meaning that the agents have had to use Asycuda since it is the one in use at the landlocked country.

The KRA recently introduced steel and motor vehicle among items to be cleared on the system that initially handled only bulk oil and petroleum, causing clogging on the system.

The agents had requested that Asycuda System be allowed to run simultaneously with Simba system as the technical hitches are addressed.

At the end of 2015, the number of licensed customs agents in Kenya stood at 1,200 corporate entities with direct employment of an estimated 50,000 workers.

[email protected]