Riga Port to raise tariffs across board

  • 2005-01-19
  • By TBT staff and wire reports
RIGA - Riga Port administrators appear determined to follow their Tallinn colleagues and raise fees across the board for ship agents as part of a revenue system overhaul.
Port Chairman Gundars Bojars told journalists on Jan. 14 that the administration had decided to devise a new fee system, one that would take into consideration recent fuel-price increases, as well as rail transportation and service at neighboring ports.

Bojars, who is also mayor of Riga, said coming up with a new fee system would take months, but it would definitely be completed this year.

He stressed that some port fees in Riga hadn't been raised for 10 years and that certain discounts would be granted to shipping companies that use Riga Port on a regular basis.

Viesturs Silenieks, a board member, told the Biznes & Baltija daily that, "The problem is that since 1994 all the tariffs have remained unchanged, while in the meantime life has become more expensive. It's been long overdue to develop a new system of tariffs based on the constant rise of prices for fuel, [natural] gas, electricity and other resources."

Silenieks did not believe a tariff increase would scare away clients, since, in his words, Riga Port will still have cheaper rates than St. Petersburg's port. "Why should Riga lose its popularity after raising rates?" he asked.

Last summer Riga Port had tried to raise tariffs on passengers, but it was subsequently forced to drop plans after a heated protest by shippers. A similar situation arose in Tallinn last year, but there port management stuck to its intentions despite operators' promise to protest the fee hike in European structures.

Tallinn Port is the largest in the Baltics, while Riga's is third after Ventspils (27.8 million tons last year). Riga Port handled almost 24 million tons of cargo in 2004, up 10.4 percent year-on-year. Most of the additional cargo was coal, which Russia is currently exporting through the Baltics in enormous amounts since it lacks its own coal-handling facilities on the Gulf of Finland.

Passenger turnover was down 17.5 percent to 229,400 passengers.

Riga Port revenues amounted to almost 13 million last (18.4 million euros), which is 8 percent more than planned.