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Repair vessel will be subject to taxes
A repair vessel from Taiwan that will fix IT&E’s damaged undersea fiber optic cable will be subject to taxes in the CNMI depending on its cargo.
This is according to Jose C. Mafnas, director of the Division of Customs.
“They [the vessel] have to go through the proper Customs clearing, and be imposed taxes with what they bring in,” Mafnas said.
He assured IT&E, the service provider, which has contracted the repair vessel, that Customs “will assist in any way we can so that it can be facilitated faster.”
Mafnas added that once they are informed of the schedule of arrival of the vessel, “Customs offices will be ready for it.”
However, Mafnas said, Customs has not yet been informed of the schedule of the vessel as of last Friday.
Last week, IT&E said the ship that will do repairs on its damaged fiber optic cable is on its way to Saipan.
According to James Oehlerking, CEO of PTI, which is the parent company of IT&E, the ship will be arriving on the island this week.
“We’ve locked down the departure and arrival schedule with the repair ship,” Oehlerking said, “We’re expecting a transit time that will have it arrive Tuesday [July 22] approximately 4am in the morning.”
Pieces of equipment that were identified and required for the repair will also be in the ship but some will also be loaded on Saipan, including the replacement piece for the fiber optic cable.
Oehlerking said repair process will begin right away. He added that they are looking at a two-day work timeline once the ship arrives.
The ship is a specialized vessel; that uses jets instead of propellers to hold it in place for the repair process.
Oehlerking said it will be deploying a submersible to be able to determine the exact damage.
As of Tuesday last week, divers were not able to locate the damaged portion of the cable.
“We’ve reached the limit of how far the divers can go down. We’ve pretty much gotten much information out of that as we can,” Oehlerking said.
He added that they evaluated the suggestion to just put up a new line instead of repairing the existing fiber optic cable.
