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By Ravi Ladduwahetty

The Sri Lanka Shippers' Council (SLSC) will negotiate with the Ceylon Association of Ships' Agents (CASA) and the Sri Lanka Association of Vessel Operators (SLAVO) over the next 30 days from October 1 for an amicable settlement of including the Terminal Handling Charge (THC) into the freight rate.

If CASA and SLAVO are not willing to come to an amicable settlement within the next 30 days, we will then call upon Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake to proceed with the requisite legislation for the Terminal Handling Charge to be incorporated into the freight rate, Chairman SLSC Ravi Ratnapala told the Daily News in an interview yesterday.

Minister Karunanayake has given the shipping industry a firm assurance that he will bring in the requisite legislation as part of the proposed Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

"Both CASA and SLAVO have indicated to us that they want to negotiate and resolve this vital issue, Ratnapala said.

"CASA and SLAVO have to tell us within the next 30 days what the component of the Terminal Handling Charge and the breakdown of the THC is in relation to the US$ 148 per twenty foot container is, as we have decided at a meeting on Tuesday," he said.

The Shippers Council is concerned that the legislation is on the cards and it is vital that consensus has to be reached as the issue has been dragging on for a long time. The Council will also meet CASA and SLAVO next Tuesday for a further round of negotiations.

Then, we will examine why and how certain costs have to be absorbed by the shipping lines and included in the freight and what ever the costs which we are liable for paying as shippers, we will pay, he said, adding that a clear consensus should be arrived at expeditiously.

This has been dragging on for too long and if the issue is not resolved in 30 days, we will not be negotiating with CASA and SLAVO again, he asserted.

Ratnapala said that the Shipping Council has been agitating from 1997 for the Terminal Handling Charge to be included in the Freight Rate, and added that the shippers were willing to pay the Colombo Port and not the shipping lines.

Chairman of the Ceylon Association of Ships' Agents and Managing Director of Aitken Spence Shipping Ltd Rohan Perera said: "We are trying to settle this amicably and we will come to some settlement within the next 30 days.

He said that CASA will convince the Shippers Council as to why the THC was mandatory in the quest for containerisation in the shipping industry.

He said that the Terminal Handling Charge would not affect competitiveness. " If the shippers are so bothered about the THC, why are they not commenting on aspects such as high stevedoring charges and other associated freight costs?," he queried

He said that CASA would not mind the Shippers Council paying the THC to the Colombo Port.

However, shipping analysts said that the Terminal Handling Charge was negligible in relation to the other costs such as power costs, production costs and other costs such as loss of productivity in relation to poor attendance such as cricket matches and other such social revelries.

Shipping analysts also assert that if the shippers are in consternation about the high THC, then all freight charges out of Colombo are much higher in Colombo in relation to competing regional ports such as Singapore and Fujera.

Chairman of the Sri Lanka Association of Vessel Operators Arjuna Hettiarachchi and Chairman of Sea Consortium was not available for comments.

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