Bring back the Black Star line now- Transport Forum Ghana.
By Betty Fynn
A group, Transport Forum Ghana have called on the government and institutions responsible for sanity in the shipping sector to revive the Black Star Line .
The Black Star line is a Ghanaian indigenous ship that transport goods from the country to other countries.
According to them , the shipping line was deriving a lot of benefit for the shippers in the country , for decades the ship has stopped or collapsed making the shippers in the country
Going through stress and the country port losing a lot of port revenue of which the line would have generate.
Other maters:
Demurrage
Demurrage is a fee charged to customers who keep carrier equipment or container in the terminal or their possession longer than the agreed free time, it can either be for export.
According to them,the demurrage days are determined or calculated from container discharge to terminal removal excluding free days.
Mr Jacob Agyemang the president and the speaker for LBG speaking at the press conference clearly stated that, whiles other countries like South Africa ,US and others demurrage calculation begins on the day of pickup at the designated place of interchange and ends after the full unit or container is returned to the designated place of interchange excluding Sundays ,Saturdays and public holidays ,
He said in case of Ghana things are different showing clearly that the shipping lines charges the importers and exporters on days they not even work.
meanwhile, he added, that the Act 2009,Act 792 of the Constitution do not state what the authorities are operating.
Recommendation
They want all the state institutions responsible for the maintaining sanity in the industry to operate on the right way.
They want free days to start counting after the departure of the vessel from the county and not the arrival of vessel to the country.
They recommend traders ,importers and exporters to make good use of professionals to help avoid those charges.
Lastly , they want the revival of the BlackStar Line now.
