Kenyan clearing agents have filed an application in court over the new fees charged for every container that is set to dock at the South Sudan port.
Reports indicated that the clearing agents from the Mombasa Port are disgruntled following South Sudan's National Revenue Authority directing the Kenyan traders to pay Ksh46,550 to a private company in Uganda for approval.
Under the Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA), the traders decried that they are already licensed by the Commissioner of Customs in Kenya to clear cargo and also collect levies.
In the application, they sought the court to declare the levies charged per container as unconstitutional.
"As clearing agents, we operate under Kenyan laws and the East Africa Community Customs Management Act and the regulations made thereunder," the association stated.
According to KIFWA, the South Sudan National Revenue Authority should be barred from enforcing the directive.
In the petition, KIFWA argued that the SSNRA is attempting to use Kenyan agents to process the fees and other taxes within the customs area, which they termed illegal.
"The levy being imposed by the respondent is ultra vires to the law since it has no constitutional basis and has no Parliament approval as required by law."
Last year, SSNRA Commissioner Major General Riek Gathon instructed Kenya to install electronic cargo tracking seals to improve logistics. Months later, the Authority introduced Ksh46,350 as the new fee for the electric cargo tracking note.
Kenyan traders, however, opposed the directive, leading to cargo containers that are destined for Juba to be detained at the Port of Mombasa.
“If we pay the Ksh46,550 levy, no one will reimburse us since we had already agreed on the amount of fee to charge for transporting the cargo to Juba,” Roy Mwanthi, the Chairman of Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association recently told Kenyans.co.ke
