ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port has been by-passed by 30 ships over customs delays and truck congestion, Ports Minister Bimal Rathnayake said as efforts were made to clear containers faster.
“It is not 24, but 30 ships have by-passed Colombo over the past two weeks,” Minister Rathnayake told reporters after President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met Customs and port service providers over the weekend to speed up clearing import containers.
Long queues of containers were seen trying to enter the port, with shippers saying that there was internal congestion in trucks inside terminals which were making ships by pass the Port.
Customs officials in a meeting with President Dissanayake was shown on television saying that they have intensified checks on containers to boost revenues.
Out of 10 containers about 2 are immediately checked and another 8 are kept back for further checks, one official said.
Last year’s 1,500 billion rupee, Customs revenue would not have been possible without tighter checks, a second official said.
Sri Lanka has high import duties to protect various special interests with close ties to the political establishment, which had led to various irregularities. Import controls also led to the smuggling of basic foods like ulundu seeds.
The port has promised to provide space in two phases to hold containers awaiting inquiry.
Large numbers of containers should not be held inside the port, and they had been sounding warnings for several months, All Ceylon Container Transporters Association chief Sanath Manjuka said.
About 1,800 containers should be cleared in a day but it can be reduced to around 700 a day by Customs based on their discretion, he said in comments broadcast over Sri Lanka’s Hiru Television.
“By now the containers outside the port had been cleared,” Manjula said. “In the yards there are is a considerable number. Inside the port there are about 800 trucks loaded with containers.
“Inf the Customs want they can clear the containers. Because they want to go on holiday they have cleared the containers outside the port.
“The day before Christmas also this happened on December 24. Because they wanted to go on holiday they cleared containers quickly.”
In addition to the 800 containers loaded with containers inside the port, about 3,000 containers had been unloaded to CICT terminal alone on Monday which will need to cleared after the ‘long weekend’ is over, he said.
Following the meeting with President Dissanayake Customs officials had agreed to work 24×7 to clear containers.
Related Sri Lanka Customs to work 24×7 to clear container backlog
However other state agencies including Sri Lanka Standards and quarantine authorities also had to similarly give the required clearances.
(Colombo/Jan14/2025)
