Following the call made by Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) a month ago, Modjo Dry Port confiscated 223 containers. ERCA made the call for 823 containers owned by importers and gave them a 4 days window. 600 containers were removed leaving 223 containers to be confiscated by ERCA.
The confiscation was announced by Moges Balcha, Deputy Director for Customs Affairs at the Authority.
The confiscated containers are said to have been stuck at the dry port for more than 6 months. Majority of the items that were taking up space were electronics, leather products, textile, foodstuff and steel.
The law which gives the power to confiscate goods stored for more than 2 months was passed 2 years ago. However, it was not enforced as ERCA chose to extend the grace period with penalty payments.
Importers are given 2 week grace period enabling them to store their goods at Modjo. Upon expiry of the period they will have to pay 12 Birr per container for every day there is a delay.
Commenting on the development Ayele Worku, General Manager of the Customs’ Office at Mojjo, said “Of the confiscated containers, the contents of 47 were found to be spoiled as their expiry dates had passed”. He furthered, “We are processing all 176 containers for bid in which interested parties shall take part except the owners of these containers. We are also identifying items and assessing the market value of these goods to set the price”.
Ayele explained a bid held last week at the dry port 11.6 million Birr was secured from the auction of 15 containers.
According to Ayele owners of the containers are not allowed to participate in the bid.
“Importers who can get a bank statement that guarantees their payment of Customs duties and demurrage costs if they had failed to do so in time are allowed to clear their goods. This way the importers are increasingly tending to clear containers sooner than [they did] before,” he said.
Nonetheless, the decision by ERCA does not affect freight forwarders and shipping agents. Commenting on this Mulugeta Assefa said, “We are operating in the uni-modal system where Customs service is done at Port Djibouti. And once we are paid to transport we will transport containers. If the containers stay for long at ports, it is the importer who is exposed to high demurrage and warehouse payments.”
Source: Fortune
