The government has told shipping firms and their agents to apply the GH¢720 Container Administrative Charge before it resumes negotiations with them over the disputed port fee, according to Transport Minister Joseph Bukari Nikpe.
Nikpe said lawyers for the affected companies had approached the government about returning to discussions outside court. He told Channel One TV on 9 September that the government’s condition was for the GH¢720 charge to be collected first.
The Ghana Shippers’ Authority had initially reviewed the Container Administrative Charge and set it at GH¢550 per twenty-foot equivalent unit. After shipping lines petitioned, the Authority says the Transport Minister directed that the charge be pegged at GH¢720 while further consultations continued. Nikpe described that GH¢720 figure as an interim $65 equivalent, adopted after the original GSA cut met objections.
The dispute also went to court. The Ghana News Agency report is the account used here of that July ruling. GSA then told shipping lines and agents to comply with the GH¢720 ceiling.
The government’s present condition for returning to talks is that the GH¢720 ceiling must first be applied.