Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Con­sumers are be­ing warned to brace for in­crease in the prices of goods as busi­ness­men con­tin­ue to face sub­stan­tial de­lays in clear­ing con­tain­ers at the Port of Point Lisas. The de­lays are said to be a di­rect re­sult of strin­gent checks be­ing made at the Port af­ter Cus­toms and Ex­cise of­fi­cers dis­cov­ered a to­tal of $33 mil­lion worth of mar­i­jua­na in two con­tain­ers last week. Yes­ter­day Cou­va Cham­ber of Com­merce Pres­i­dent Nal Ram­s­ingh said con­sumers could ex­pect an in­crease in prices if the de­lays at the Port con­tin­ue.

He said the dis­cov­ery of the drugs is a se­ri­ous mat­ter and is im­pact­ing neg­a­tive­ly on Cen­tral busi­ness­men.

"We are hap­py that they are find­ing drugs but it puts pres­sure on the peo­ple who are do­ing le­gal trade. When we have to pay the ad­di­tion­al charges for clear­ing of con­tain­ers, the con­sumers end up pay­ing," he said. While he does not fore­see any in­creas­es in the im­me­di­ate sit­u­a­tion, Ram­s­ingh said, "If there con­tin­ues to be de­lays on the Port the cost of goods will rise." He said busi­ness­men have four days to clear their con­tain­ers when the con­tain­ers re­main on the Port af­ter that pe­ri­od stor­age charges are in­curred.

The Cham­ber Pres­i­dent said he has been re­ceiv­ing nu­mer­ous com­plaints about the sit­u­a­tion and is try­ing to re-as­sure his mem­bers. "The port is now check­ing all the con­tain­ers 100 per cent and I have tried to ex­plain to them (mem­bers) that un­der the cir­cum­stances, find­ing drugs and ex­cess goods, it is nor­mal for Cus­toms to do their work to sift out the peo­ple do­ing il­le­gal trade at this time," he said. Ram­s­ingh said while the busi­ness­men are cog­nisant of this fact, de­lays at the Port seem to be a norm year round. "Un­der nor­mal cir­cum­stances we are (get­ting) dif­fi­cul­ties in get­ting con­tain­ers in the time­ly man­ner.

Some­times the cashier is not there, the peo­ple to sign doc­u­ments not there, the peo­ple ex­am­in­ing the con­tain­ers not there and the work­ers to pack the con­tain­ers is not there. This is dur­ing work­ing hours," Ram­s­ingh lament­ed. The Cham­ber Pres­i­dent said there is still no word on the own­ers of the con­tain­ers, in which the drugs were found. How­ev­er he was in high praise for Cus­toms and Ex­cise pre­ven­tive of­fi­cers, who to­geth­er with the Ma­rine In­ter­dic­tion Unit, found the il­le­gal car­go. "They are check­ing all con­tain­ers 100 per cent and this will slow the de­liv­ery of con­tain­ers but, we must com­mend the Cus­toms of­fi­cers and the se­cu­ri­ty on the Port for do­ing their du­ty to pre­vent guns, am­mu­ni­tion and drugs from com­ing in­to this coun­try. We must com­mend them for that," Ram­s­ingh said.