PANAMA CANAL OFFICIAL CONFIRMS NO 1988 TOLL RISE

  Panama Canal toll charges will not rise
  in the year to end-September 1988, despite last October's
  landslide which dumped 0.5 mln cubic yards of debris into the
  waterway, Canal Commission Administrator Dennis McAuliffe said.
      He told a press conference that in confirming the
  Commission's earlier announcement of unchanged tolls for 1988,
  he was not necessarily implying there would be a rise in 1989.
      The canal would probably make a five to six mln dlr loss in
  the current financial year but this could be carried over and
  met from next year's revenues.
      This year's deficit resulted from the landslide which cost
  the canal about 15 mln dlrs, McAuliffe said. This included
  eight to nine mln dlrs in immediate costs with the rest being
  spent on earth-moving operations to prevent any further
  landslides.
      He said the landslide was not caused by deforestation and
  he described as grossly exaggerated reports that there was any
  threat to the canal's water supply in the foreseeable future.
      Studies concerning the possibility of widening the Gaillard
  cut would not be affected by the landslide, he said, adding
  that he expected the canal board to determine whether and when
  the canal needed widening by January 1988 at the latest.
  

