Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Seychelles Ports Authority has announced that the introduction of the new passenger port fee set for September 1, 2023 has been placed on hold, after the authority identified some errors dating back to pre-2013 when the last review was done.
Chief executive of the Seychelles Ports Authority, Sony Payet said the existing regulation will now be repealed for necessary amendments and more detailed discussions with operational stakeholders.
The errors, according to Mr Payet, mainly relate to miscalculated fees although he sought to underscore that these miscalculation were not significant or catastrophic blunders. They were simply “minor inaccuracies” that needed to be addressed.
In an interview with Seychelles NATION yesterday, CEO Payet explained that the proposal for the tariff revision was approved by Cabinet earlier this year and all stakeholders were informed about the forthcoming upward revision.
According to him, the revision aims to facilitate the ongoing port development endeavours, notably, the substantial expansion at the Victoria Port.
According to Mr Payet, the initial plan was to launch these changes on September 1, 2023. However, during the process, it was uncovered that there were some minor errors predating 2013.
Consequently, the decision was made to postpone the tariff adjustments temporarily to rectify these errors.
“To address this, the Minister [for Transport] oversaw the repeal of the existing regulation. This now allows us to address the identified issues and respond to the articulated needs of the operational stakeholders, who have also sought more detailed discussions on the regulatory aspects”, he explained.
Ongoing discussions aim to guarantee that all stakeholders are well-informed and aligned with the regulations when the revised fees are eventually introduced.
“If we have waited for 13 years to implement this increment, a few more months will not make it impossible to bring all the stakeholders together for discussions which we have already started to address this once and for all,” he stated.
Mr Payet elaborated on what this means for the customer. He emphasised that the port operates with a sense of responsibility, aiming to provide services at a fair fee.
A crucial aspect of this evaluation involved calculating the potential impact on consumers.
Particularly, he focused on essential goods like meat and rice, commonly used by Seychellois citizens. The calculation revealed that the increase in cost for items such as one kilogram of rice or chicken, as an example, would not surpass 15 cents. Mr Payet underscored that 15 cents for such essential commodities should not be a substantial concern.
He also appealed to the private sector to maintain reasonable profit margins when passing on costs to customers. “Not because I went up by 15 cents they go up by 10 rupees, it is not fair and it is not just,” he said sternly.
“The repercussions fall back on the port and they say the port adjusted the price so that is what is hitting us. No, the port is very conscious of what it is doing, the port has its social mandate that it is always following, so we are always doing things in line with the national interest,” he stated.
“I am not criticising businesses; they also have to make a profit, but let us look at how they can make that profit without it hitting the Seychellois people hard,” he concluded.
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