Berbice businessmen said yesterday that they do not support the move by the Berbice Bridge Corpora-tion Inc (BBCI) to increase the tolls for local vessels by more than 300% as this will only affect the economy negatively.
In a notice in the Sunday Stabroek, BBCI advised “all mariners, vessel owners, masters, agents, pilots and captains of vessels” that all vessels shall be required to pay $55,000 to transit through the retractor opening in accordance with the Berbice River Bridge (Toll) Order 2009. This goes into effect from July 24, 2017, the notice said.
Contacted yesterday, Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce (UCCC) President Krishnand Jaichand explained that the fee for local vessels to transit the retractor opening was currently $18,000, while foreign vessels paid $55,000. The increase in fees for local vessels, he stated, would be more than 300%.
“What I’m really concerned about is the basis on which they made the increase… and it’s over 300%. It is a more burden for the people plying the Berbice River,” Jaichand said.
He explained that the UCCC has about 10 members who all operate vessels on the Berbice River and are all against the move. “The consensus is that it is more pressure on them in terms of doing business and they would have to absorb the cost because it cannot filter down to the employees or even the customers,” Jaichand added.
He said the increase was going to indirectly affect the local economy since the vessel operators will now have to absorb the heavy increase in tolls. “It’s a competition and people might not want to pay but you will have to pay it. I don’t support it because you can’t just wake up and say that you increase without consultation,” he said, adding that the chamber was not consulted on the move to increase the tolls.
He argued that a proper reason why the increase was needed should be presented along with justification for the specific increase in price.
Businessman Sadiq Zaladin of Zaladin Industrial, who oversees two vessels that traverse the Berbice River regularly, also said that the increase was too high and will cause issues with the operators.
“No increase should pass 100% at any one time. For local operators that $55,000 is a lot of money…,” the man said, while explaining that the operators would have to pay to the toll every time they pass the bridge, which brings their bill up to $110,000 every time they enter and exit.
“There’s no other choice you just have to pay it because then you won’t be able to use the bridge at all,” he added.
Zaladin explained that while vessels have to pay to pass through the retractor span, there is another part of the bridge, called the high span that some vessels are allowed to pass through for free.
“The transporters for the bauxite company are allowed to pass under the high span for free and we have vessels that are similar sized and we still have to use the retractor span,” the man said, calling it unfair.
Zaladin explained that currently he has two vessels that transit the route about twice a week and the new toll will only make it harder for him to do business. “In today’s business the profit margin is the skin of your teeth.
So, when you start to pay this additional increase then your profit margin will decrease and it’s either you absorb it or you can put it on the customer but sometimes they cry out and you have to absorb it yourself,” he said.
Other businessmen and vessel owners were also contacted and they shared the same sentiments as Zaladin and Jaichand. The men concluded that the move would be bad for business and will only see less money being circulated in the local economy.
“We will just be paying drastically more to pass the bridge and that means that we have less to spend. Our operational cost just went up by $37,000 one way and that’s a lot of money if you think about all the trips you does make a week and how much in total you gonna be spending back,” another businessman, who did not want to be named, told Stabroek News yesterday.
Stabroek News tried to contact the BBCI to find out the reasons behind the decision to increase the toll but was told that the officials were not available since they were all in a meeting.
