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Tinian mayor ‘fully supports’ limiting wharfage fees
Tinian Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz said he “fully supports” Senate Bill 18-56, which limits wharfage fees that the Commonwealth Ports Authority charges to cargo offloaded at a port or harbor in the CNMI. The bill also waives wharfage fees on cargo shipped to and from the islands within the CNMI.
“For too long, the people of Tinian have been forced to pay double wharfage on products shipped to our island. This practice has unfairly increased the already high cost of living on Tinian,” Dela Cruz said in his letter to House Public Utilities, Transportation and Communications chair Rep. Lorenzo Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan).
The House PUTC Committee is currently reviewing Sen. Frank Cruz’s (R-Tinian) Senate Bill 18-56 for recommendation to the full House.
The Tinian mayor said the bill’s passage will allow people of Tinian to “buy more goods with their limited income.”
Dela Cruz also recommends amending the bill as introduced to include “a waiver on all passenger facility charges and planeing and de-planeing charges on inter-island flights to help make transportation more affordable for our people and for guests arriving from foreign destinations but transiting to Tinian and Rota.”
He added that encouraging travel between islands will support the CNMI’s general economic development.
Senators, during passage of the bill, took turns slamming CPA for what they describe as double wharfage fee imposition. The bill wants to ensure that wharfage fees are charged “one time” for commodities that are offloaded at any port or harbor under CPA jurisdiction.
