TANZANIA Ports Authority (TPA) has said customers who have cargo on the premise that was under the management and operation of the Tanzania International Container Services (TICTS) have to make all payment transactions for Port charges based on the TICTS Company Tariff Guide on bank accounts.
In a statement issued in Dar es Salaam recently, TPA said this applies also to customers intending to bring the cargo through the same terminal and are required to make all payment transactions for Port charges based on the TICTS Company Tariff Guide on bank accounts.
The TPA statement comes at the time after officially taking over the operations and management of the TICTS following the expiry of its contract in September last year.
"TPA has taken over the operations and management of the TICTS terminals following the expiry of the leasing contract on September last year and subsequent handing over operations to TPA on December last year," stated the statement.
TPA will now operate berths 8 to 11 that have been under the private sector for over 20 years to get the revenues forecasted to be collected from cargo handled at those respective berths.
TICTS's 5-year contract expired in September this year, however, the government extended it for three months while the two sides held discussions over the possibility of renewing the concession.
The TPA board resolved to terminate the contract, which had lasted for 22 years after the two parties failed to agree on key terms.
The TPA board directed the management to serve the company with a termination notice after the failure of the negotiations.
In 2008, Parliament passed a resolution instructing the government to terminate the contract extension. However, that was followed by a five-year contract extension in 2017.
In September 2017, the late President John Magufuli directed the TPA to review its contract with TICTS after it was revealed that the contract had numerous defects.
After reviewing the contract in 2017, the government doubled the annual fee that TICTS pays for leasing the lucrative container terminal from 7 million US dollars to 14 million US dollars.
