THE DAP has called for the suspension of a new tariff set to be imposed on shipping firms that berth their vessels at the Kuching Port Pending terminal.

Effective August 1, Kuching Port Authority (KPA) will impose “channel maintenance recovery charges” of RM1 per tonne of cargo.

Shipping firms would also have to pay RM36.25 per 20-ft container and RM72.50 per 40-ft container, an approximate 20% overall increase in port charges.

The maintenance charges are for a deepened 23.4km-long navigational channel from the Pending terminal to Tanjung Po, a coastal promontory in Muara Tebas.

The channel has not been deepened.

“The RM360 million Sarawak River dredging project will only begin in August. Why the collection of channel charges?” state DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen said.

“By right, maintenance charges should only be collected after the completion of the project,” he told a press conference at the state party headquarters in Kuching yesterday.

The Federally funded dredging project, implemented under the 11th Malaysia Plan, is scheduled to by completed by 2020.

Chong also proposed to deepen the Muara Tebas river channel to the Senari port, a distance of 7km.

He said this was because Senari Port handles four times more cargo than Pending Port does. The latter only handles vehicles and dry bulk cargo.

Chong said his proposal would save the government RM230 million.

“With these extra savings, there’s absolutely no need to collect the charges for shippers,” he said.

Last June, a similar tariff was suspended by the late chief minister Adenan Satem.

In his proposal letter to the Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg, Chong called the latter to “equal or better” his predecessor.

“This is one of those white elephant projects that have no economic expediency,” Chong told reporters.

“The people are made to pay and suffer because of this wasteful spending. I call upon Abang Johari not to emulate Umno’s way of governing the state,” he said. – July 6, 2017.