The Virgin Islands Port Authority is awaiting payment of more than $6 million in wharfage and tonnage fees that have accumulated since January 2008, the port’s board learned while meeting this week on St. Croix.
Under an agreement between the Virgin Islands government and U.S. Customs, wharfage and tonnage fees from ships calling in the Virgin Islands are collected by Customs, which then remits them to the V.I. Department of Finance, according to Finance Commissioner Angel Dawson. The department deducts five percent and remits the remainder to the Port Authority.
According to the Port Authority’s July financial statement, discussed at the Wednesday meeting, $6.3 million in unremitted fees have accumulated since January 2008.
The Department of Finance is just a pass-through, Dawson said, and the department can only remit when they receive money from U.S. Customs Service.
"VIPA is carrying on its books $6.3 million," Dawson said. "What they don’t know is when Customs has remitted those funds to us."
The $6.3 million receivable is based on reports of the amounts collected by Customs for wharfage and tonnage, Dawson said. However, the reports of fees collected does not mean that Customs has already passed the funds along.
"We cannot remit what we have not received," Dawson said, quickly noting that he is not suggesting the Port Authority’s figures are incorrect. "The only way that $6.3 million could have accrued is if Customs collected a lot more money than has been remitted to the V.I. government for pass-through to the Port Authority," Dawson said.
The most recent remittances received by Finance from Customs were in August 2008 for $1.6 million and another $124,000 received within the past few weeks, Dawson said. The $1.6 million has been remitted, less the five percent to the V.I. government, and the $124,000 is being processed, Dawson said.
That leaves a discrepancy of some $4.6 million between what VIPA says it is owed and what reports say has been collected by Customs for the wharfage and tonnage fees since January 2008.
"I have contacted the Port Authority to try to develop a joint strategy to approach the U.S. Customs issue," Dawson said.
The Authority’s executive director did not respond to requests for comment on the issue and Board chairman Cassan Pancham declined comment.
Board members present at the meeting included Chairman Cassan Pancham, Albert Bryan Jr., Beverly Nicholson-Doty, Attorney General Vincent Frazer, Gordon A. Finch, Robert O’Connor, Hector Peguero and Darryl A. Smalls.
