State-owned PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II announced Monday it raised container handling fees at Tanjung Priok port to offset rising prices and to fund infrastructure upgrades.
The increase in the fees is between 18 and 21 percent.
Pelindo II spokesman Hendra Budhi said the fee for international-bound 20-feet containers had been increased to US$83 from $70, and the fee for 40-feet containers to $124.5 from $105.
"The new fees are applied at the Jakarta International Container Terminal and Koja Container Terminal," he said.
The fees at Multi Terminal Indonesia port for 20-feet containers was raised to $66 from $53, while the charge for 40-feet containers was hiked to $99 from $79.5.
Hendra said the new fees included charges for containers loading and uploading.
He said the decision to raise the fees had been agreed upon by port stakeholders the Indonesian Ship Owners' Association INSA and the Indonesian Association of Importers and Exporters GINSI and GPEI.
The port operator, he said, had also needed to raise the fees to cope with rising inflation, and increased prices of fuel and electricity.
Increased revenue from the new fees is expected to help the company finance the construction of a new container yard that will have a storage capacity of 1 million twenty-foot-equivalent-units of containers. The funds will also be spent on improving loading infrastructure.
Stakeholders have often criticized Tanjung Priok port for falling short of a security standard demanded by the International Maritime Organization.
Director General of Customs and Excise Anwar Suprijadi, who has received acclaim for leading a clean up of his corruption-riddled office, recently said the port was "unsafe" as security allowed unauthorized personnel to enter its compound.
The Tanjung Priok port accounts for 60 percent of Indonesia's export and import activities, or around four million containers a year.
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