Kathmandu, March 21

Nepal Transit and Warehousing Company (NTWC) has revised down the warehouse charges of air cargo on exports following the threat by traders and logistic service providers to halt work owing to the high warehouse charges raising the cost of trade.

NTWC had raised the warehouse charges on air cargo — on exports and imports — last Thursday citing an agreement with Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). The warehouse of CAAN is being managed by government-owned NTWC on revenue sharing modality.

The NTWC has been managing the warehouse of CAAN located at Tribhuvan International Airport since 2009. It was able to raise the charge this time after several attempts. The NTWC had attempted to revise the rate along with its entry as the management company in 2009 and also in April last year.

While taking the decision to roll back the revised charges last year, NTWC had asked the government to form a committee and execute the recommendation of the committee. The company had withdrawn its decision earlier too on both occasions as traders and logistic service providers had protested against the move to raise the warehouse charges.

The committee comprised of a board director of CAAN, general manager of NTWC, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport and a representative from the private sector. NTWC had raised the charges last Thursday citing the recommendation of the report.

Traders and logistic service providers were called for negotiations after they threatened to protest following the revision in charges on Thursday. Based on the tripartite negotiation among traders and logistic service providers, the government and NTWC, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari had taken the proposal to raise the charges up to the negotiated rate to the Cabinet and the Cabinet meeting endorsed the rate, recently, according to officials of NTWC.

As per the revised rates export of normal cargo will be charged a minimum of Rs 200 or one rupee per kg, whichever is higher for the first seven days from the date of entry in the customs warehouse and

demurrage charge will be Re 0.75 per kg per day for up to 30 days. Charges for express or courier has been fixed at a minimum of Rs 50 or five rupees per kg excluding value added tax (VAT), as per NTWC.

The warehouse management company has slapped charge of Rs 200 per day for holidays and off-hours handling charges.

Likewise, the warehouse charge for import of normal cargo has been fixed at a minimum of Rs 100 or five rupees per kg excluding VAT for the first seven days and additional two rupees plus VAT after a week of the cargo arriving in the warehouse.