ABUJA: The Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) will meet soon to address the issue of non-compliance of trade procedures by Nigerian importers.
The two organisations are worried about under-declaration, concealment, and other trade malpractices involving Nigerian importers through which government loses so much revenue.
The executive secretary of the NSC, Mr Hassan Bello, said in Lagos that the two organisations have discussed the issue, adding that the ports regulator would be holding a national dialogue with the NCS, shippers and the freight forwarders.
“We are very much concerned by non-compliance by shippers and we have discussed this with the NCS. The NCS is worried too. Somebody pointed out to me that 80 per cent of shippers are non-compliant. This means that there is under-declaration and/or false declaration.
“We are going to have a national dialogue in the next two weeks with the Nigeria Customs Service and the freight forwarders, who are the agents of the shippers, so that the shippers would become compliant,” he said.
Bello said that non-compliance to trade regulations is one of the major reasons for revenue leakage, delay in goods clearance, and also the reason the NCS carries out 100 per cent examination at the ports.
“If they are compliant, the risk assessment of the customs will hasten clearance at the port. Non-compliance causes revenue leakage. It is fraudulent and causes so much delay in clearance,” he further said.
He pointed out that there were relevant provisions in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) that punish under-declaration and non-compliance, saying, “ We are all going to discuss that with a view to having more compliance as we go on.”
