Try your best to clear your goods to avoid further demurrage – GUTA advises members

In spite of the economic hardship the country is facing, President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has urged its members to put in efforts in clearing their goods stuck at the port to avoid further charges, payable to the owner of a chartered ship, on failure to load or discharge the ship within an agreed time.

According to him, though some members are financially handicapped and are finding it difficult to pay for the documentation of their goods to move to the clearance stage, "what I have advised our members is to just go ahead, manage to clear their goods in order not to incur additional demurrage cost.”

This announcement comes after government waived all demurrages and rent charges incurred by importers and all other ports users during the COVID-19 partial lockdown between March 30 and April 19 as part of a relief package for shippers.

The Ghana Shippers' Authority (GSA) reminded importers, cargo owners, freight forwarders and all other ports users that any further delays in clearing their goods would not be covered by the waiver.

Dr Obeng has made known that his outfit has written back to government to extend the waiver so as to have many of its members have their goods cleared.

The reason, he noted, was because currently, businesses have slowed down and traders are finding it difficult to bounce back to normal due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

He indicated that government is yet to accept their plea.

Disclosing this in an interview with GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante, he said, “We have actually made our case and government is yet to accept or not…every Ghanaian understands that this thing has actually affected us. Sales have gone down because of the lockdown and all that and we have barely settled in and definitely, people are going to pay a lot more of demurrages because of the inability to get the duty payment.”