Effective July 1, 2019, the Government of Costa Rica will implement regulations decreed under the new law Reglamento Borrador de Impuesto Valor Agre. The new regulations require that all shipments to Costa Rica shall be subject to an added value charge (LEY DEL IMPUESTO AL VALOR AGREGADO) of thirteen (13) percent of the published tariff inland from the Costa Rican port of discharge to the inland place of delivery. The regulations require the ocean carrier, Seaboard Marine, to show the charges that apply to inland services within Costa Rica.

To comply with this regulation and ensure that our customers have transparency for the added value charge that will be applied for the inland service in Costa Rica, Seaboard Marine will modify all tariff and service contract rates to separate the portion that is applied for inland service between Puerto Moin and the specific city location. Seaboard Marine will continue to provide Door service within Costa Rica but will show the Costa Rican inland as a combination rate where the inland charge will be specifically listed within a service contract and shown as part of the bill of lading of itemized charges.

Seaboard Marine is implementing a Costa Rica Administrative Surcharge to recover the Carriers’ cost of administering the Costa Rican Transportation Value Added Tax. This charge replaces the recently announced Tax Management Recovery Fee.

The charge will be applied as follows:

All shipments to Costa Rica (Southbound), Effective July 1, 2019

  1. If the Shipper requests the bill of lading to terminate at the port and is not assessed an inland charge beyond the port, a $20 per container charge will be assessed.
  2. If the Shipper requests the Costa Rica inland charge to be shown on the bill of lading, and the shipper requests the inland charge to be prepaid at origin, a $100 per container charge will be assessed.
  3. If the Shipper requests the Costa Rica inland to be billed collect at destination, then a thirteen (13) percent charge of the total inland cost beyond the port will be assessed on the bill of lading and collected from the Consignee.

The Costa Rica Government has exempted shipments delivered to a designated Costa Rican Free Zone from the Costa Rican Transportation Value Added Tax. To exempt a shipment from this charge, the Shipper must place the name and address of the designated free zone in the body of the bill of lading or in the Domestic Routing Export Instructions box.  In the event the container is re-routed to a new destination that is not a free zone sanctioned by the Costa Rican Government, the bill of lading will be re-rated with the above applicable charges, and will be subject to the Bill of Lading Correction Charge (Rule 002 sub rule 015).

All shipments from Costa Rica (Northbound), Effective July 28, 2019

  1. If the Shipper requests the bill of lading to originate from the port, and there is no inland charge assessed for the transport to the port, a $20 per container charge will be assessed.
  2. If the Shipper requests the Carrier to perform inland transport to the origin port, a $100 per container charge will be assessed.

To read more about the added value charge that is being imposed by Costa Rican regulation LEY DEL IMPUESTO AL VALOR AGREGADO, please CLICK HERE.

As always, we thank you for your continued support.