Customs’ strike cripples clearing of goods: About 4,000 freight containers held up

Dispute over govt. taking over lucrative reward fund

By Rathindra Kuruwita

About 4,000 containers have been stuck at the Colombo Port due to the trade union action by the Customs Officers’ Union, Sanath Manjula, President of the Container Transport Owners Association (CTOA) says.Manjula said yesterday the clearing of containers had been hampered.

“Customs officials are only clearing food, medicine and other essential items. Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) has about 3,000 containers and there are about 750 containers at South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT). Jaya Container Terminals (JCT) and East Container Terminal (ECT) also have several hundreds of containers that need to be cleared,” Manjula said.

If the union action dragged on, the import sector would be severely affected, he said. Manjula warned that the price of goods might increase.

“The government must address the concerns of customs officials immediately,” he added.

Meanwhile, Niruksha Kumara, National Organiser of the All Ceylon Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said among the containers stuck at the Colombo Port were goods meant for the coming festive season.

“Now, there is a delay in getting the containers released. We have to pay demurrage. The government must address this problem, or we will have to increase prices to recover demurrage,” he said.

Customs unions withdrew from overtime duty last Friday after the government decided to take over a fund which was previously under the purview of the Director General of Customs. This fund is used to pay prize money for officials who make detections of illegal goods.