Every Monday and Wednesday will witness the sale by the Customs Department at the Douala Seaport.
There is no space for more containers to be parked in the Douala International Terminal, DIT, at the Douala port. Over 3,000 containers have occupied the park for over 90 days causing congestion at the Douala port. As per article 273 of the Customs Code, containers that have spent 90 days and above at the DIT have to be auctioned and money deposited in the public treasury. It is for this reason that the Ad hoc Committee in charge of the sales of such containers organised the auction sales at the Inland Container Deport (Port Sec) in a bid to decongest the port.
50 containers will be auctioned twice a week. The content of 50 containers auctioned on Monday, 20 April 2015 included mostly used goods like chairs, mattresses, refrigerators and gas and electric cookers. Second-hand vehicles, tyres, sports shoes, chemicals for wood treatment, kitchen utensils caught the attention of businessmen who filled the Inland Container Depot.
Dangerous and expired goods including a 40-feet 80mg Artemether injection and a 40-feet baby’s food were among the 50 containers sorted out for Monday’s auction. Dangerous and expired goods according to the commission will be destroyed by a special commission in charge of the destruction of illicit and expired goods.
Speaking during the opening ceremony, the Auctioneer, Andomo Elanga said the operation will help create space at the DIT for other containers stocked in ships to be offloaded. It will as well render the port more competitive. Container owners have 11 plus three days of grace to clear their containers from the terminal and failure will result to the payment of parking fees after the 14th day.
Should the container spend 90 days in the parking lot whether taxes have been paid or not, is subjected to auction sales. But container owners who have paid the parking fees and taxes and did not remove the container after 90 days, can only be considered if they address an application to the Chief of Sector for Littoral I for authorisation.
According to Félicien Mballa of the Customs Department, buyers have till 48 hours to remove the container from the port else the containers will be resold to others. He said they raised over FCFA One billion from the last auction sales and was quick to add that it is not a money-making operation but to safe the port from congestion. To one of the victims who preferred anonymity, the ongoing xenophobic attack in South Africa is a major stumbling block since most of the containers are owned by Cameroonians in South Africa.
