Pettah importers write letter to President, PM over new port charges

I decided to write to you directly as I was upset when I saw that a new set of cargo forwarders had published an article in the papers lobbying to try to bring back charges that had been stopped in 2014. 

We are traders who bring consumable items from India and China. We import around 15 containers a month on CIF. In the past these forwarders used to charge us the mentioned charges when we used to collect our delivery orders:

 When we use to ask about such charges they used to blackmail us and not give us our delivery orders and then we had to also suffer port rent and demurrage. We even protested to our suppliers, who, because they are powerful, did not take action. So we had to pay such charges and recover the cost from the local company.

In 2014 the Government gave us the ruling that no one could charge THC and other charges but only collect a delivery order charge from us and that was also checked by the Director Merchant Shipping. It is only after this new rule that we came to understand what the shipping lines and forwarders were doing. They were robbing us. We then became members of the Import Association and there we understood what they did to us for so long. Now we have a clear understanding of shipping terms.

If there were any good things done for our country by the past Government it was the stoppage of the war and the stoppage of such a cost being charged to us.

These people have been collecting so much money from us and we had no one to complain to, so please do not permit such charges to be collected. We have now very clear payments and smooth operations where they cannot hold our delivery orders by blackmailing us to pay charges that we do not know about.

If these forwarders want to leave Sri Lanka it’s good for all of us as they are bloodsucking ticks who live on the backs of the poor people of this land. Let the good ones stay and we will do our work.

 Pettah Merchant