KRA to auction unclaimed cargo at Port

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General John Njiraini speaks during a media briefing at his Times Towers offices in Nairobi on April 19, 2016. There are 4,800 bags of Pakistan rice that are slated for the auction, according to a notice KRA published in the Kenya Gazette on April 19. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • A 60-day waiver for cargo that was imported before November 2014 was given, though importers had not claimed their goods as expected.
  • By the time the amnesty expired on May 12, only 16 containers and 98 vehicles were cleared, with a balance of 1,046 vehicles and 1,159 containers, according to statistics released by KRA.

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is expected to auction thousands of unclaimed containers and vehicles at the Port of Mombasa port on Monday to ease congestion at the facility.

Prospective buyers were given time to view various types of cargo for sale on Friday and Monday, with Regional Manager Nicholas Kinoti saying the revenue authority had put in place logistics to ensure the exercise runs smoothly.

A 60-day waiver for cargo that was imported before November 2014 was given, though importers had not claimed their goods as expected.

By the time the amnesty expired on May 12, only 16 containers and 98 vehicles were cleared, with a balance of 1,046 vehicles and 1,159 containers, according to statistics released by KRA.

A total of Sh203.5 million accrued rent had been waived.

Although the taxman, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Container Freight Station (CFS) operators waived the fees, other logistical costs had hampered taking advantage of the amnesty.

The cargo is owned by importers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, South Sudan and Rwanda.

Other goods set for auction range from kitchenware to tyres, used motor vehicles and sugar.

There are 4,800 bags of Pakistan rice that are slated for the auction, according to a notice KRA published in the Kenya Gazette on April 19.

“We are going to auction all overstayed goods and will hold these auctions regularly to discourage importers from keeping cargo at the port. Despite the publicity given to the amnesty, the response was still worse than the previous amnesties in 2015,” Mr Kinoti said.

“Most of the unclaimed cargo was purported to be transit and we suspect that these goods were not genuinely transit but was a ploy to dump them in the local market,” he said, adding that they have completed cleaning up the warehouse that importers have been using as storage.

According to Mr William Kidima who represents importers from Uganda at the port stakeholders’ meetings, most people in his country did not collect their cargo because they were not aware of the amnesty.