Cost of goods coming through Port could increase
Goods coming through the Port Authority of Guam could increase following action taken today by the agency's board of directors.
By KUAM NewsGuam - Goods coming through the Port Authority of Guam could increase following action taken today by the agency's board of directors. The board today approved a request by management to petition the Public Utilities Commission for a tariff increase of 5.65%.
Port vice chairwoman Christine Baleto told KUAM News, "There were concerns brought up at the last meeting relative to what that was going to fund, so I believe that were we able to allay some of our concerns. And so today was really to give the approval for them to move forward and to petition the PUC for that increase."
Baleto adds while it's not a significant increase, any increase is a huge impact to consumers. "Any increase that we put on goods coming into the Port affect every single person living on Guam because of course that's a higher amount that the importers have to pay, which translates to higher costs of goods, it affects cars coming in, it affects food coming in," she said.
The increase namely is to help fund a $10 million loan the Port secured from the Bank of Guam for the Service Life Extension for the Port's wharfs. Port general manager Joanne Brown tells KUAM News that the loan was needed to address the repair work for a critically needed project. Of the $10 million, $6.5 million would go directly for the SLE with $2.5 million for a financial management system and one million for cargo handling equipment.
Brown adds in order to keep the Port viable and operational, the repairs and ultimately the increase was necessary adding these things cannot take care of themselves. Baleto meanwhile says with the reality of the repairs, there's no way around it. "So the board doesn't take lightly these increases and we want to make sure that they're justified and they're going towards projects that are going to improve the Port," she explained.
Baleto adds while millions in federal funding has been provided to the Port, that has been earmarked already and does not include repairs to the waterfront. While it could take several months for the process to go through which includes the Port submitting a packet to the PUC along with public notices and hearings, Baleto expects it to take effect in possibly six months.