The All People’s Congress (APC) and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) in Parliament have both cautioned the Director General of the National Authority to stop demurrage on diplomat’s shipments in the country.

“We have received complaints about the habit of the authority to demurrage diplomatic consignments at the Water Quay. This will bring bad reputation to the country. Try to re-adjust and allow diplomatic missions’ shipment to sail through the port without hiccups,” the two leaders have asserted.

Making his submission, the Opposition Leader of All People’s Congress (APC) party in Parliament, Hon Abdul Kargbo, has cautioned the Ministry of Finance to ensure that Diplomatic Missions’ consignment coming through the country’s Port Authority should not tasked for a demurrage.

He made the submission on Monday 18th December, 2023 at Committee Room One, during the vetting of Presidential Nominees including Deputy Finance Minister I, Director General of NRA and Deputy Bank Governor I, among others.

Hon Kargbo revealed that the country has diplomats in foreign lands adding that what Sierra Leoneans are not facing in other countries should not be done to their counterparts in Sierra Leone.

He said concessions are to be looked into and urged the newly appointed Director General of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) to look into goods passing from Queen Elizabeth II Quay by diplomatic missions and charitable institutions to prevent them from paying a heavy demurrage.

Demurrage is money, in most cases, that has to be paid when a chartered ship is used for longer than agreed or when goods are collected later than the agreed time after being taken off a chartered ship.

He stated that the budget process is protracted, cited that what Parliament approved is not what was expended in the previous budget.

Supporting the opposition leader, the SLPP Member of Parliament who doubles as the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Hon Matthew Sahr Nyuma, has also thanked the opposition leader for raising such important directive during the vetting of Presidential nominees, adding that the issue of demurrage on foreign diplomat containers at the Water Quay has become alarming.

He said the newly appointed DG of NRA should work towards addressing that issue, stressing that the country has missions abroad and Sierra Leone should recognized diplomatic concessions when it comes to tax exemptions.

The Deputy opposition Leader, Hon Aaron Aruna Koroma representing Tonkolili District, talked of the economic challenges in the areas of flaunting the Constitution of Sierra Leone and the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act.

He went on that some of the Ministries, Department and Agencies have violated the constitution by engaging in extra-spending without parliamentary approval contrary to law.

The MP furthered said that, the reason for the currency depreciation is as a result of the purification and the use of two currencies in the country.

He urged the newly appointed Deputy Bank Governor to ensure that the old currency be withdrawn.

During the debate the Deputy Leader of Government Business, Hon Bashiru Silikie, called on the Finance Minister to take notes of what MPs had contributed to the budget debates and tried to implement them.

“This is a new Parliament and I call on all of you to come on board and support the implementation of the budget,” he concluded.

He further called on Parliament to carry out its mandate to oversee the activities of MDAs.