ABUJA: The Nigeria Customs Service at the weekend took a swipe at some importers and their clearing agents over delays associated with the examination and release of imported cargo at the nation’s seaports and land borders.
This is against the backdrop of recent complaints by some agents, freight forwarders and even the importers over the alleged delays in the examination and release of their imported consignments both at the Lagos Ports Complex and Tin Can Island Ports, Apapa both in Lagos.
The acting Zonal Controller of the Zone A, Lagos of Customs, which controls all the commands in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and the Seme Borders, Assistant Comptroller General ACG, Charles Edike, who spoke in an exclusive interview, said that officers and men of the service are on strict instruction not to delay any consignment.
According to him, the only reason why a particular consignment may be delayed is that if the officers suspect that the importer of the consignment in question is not honest in the declaration of the cargo, which is common among many agents and importers.
According to him, the current regime of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report PAAR, thrives on honesty and integrity, and therefore requires genuine and transparent declarations by the importers and their agents.
He also insisted that any importer or agent, who honestly and transparently declares the true value and volume of his consignments would take delivery of them within six hours of their arrival since the documentations ought to have been done even before the arrival of the consignment.
“The major problem we have with some importers and agents under this PAAR regime is that many of them are not honest and transparent in their declarations and there is no way the system will not detect and question such consignments and the issuance of Demand Notes DN would arise, which takes longer time to handle”, he said.
Edike, who also challenged the importers and their agents said: “When you import your consignments, make honest and transparent declarations and one officer tries to delay you, why not report such officer because he absolutely has no reason to delay you”.
He insisted that in any case where an importer or his agent has made honest and transparent declarations and an officer is trying to delay him or her, such officer should be reported to the Area Controller in charge of the command and if nothing is done within a reasonable time, such a matter should be reported to him instead of complaining to the media.
The Nigerian Shippers Council NSC, the nation’s economic regulator for the seaports had said recently that more than 80 per cent of goods imported into the country are associated with different forms of import-related fraud, designed to evade import duty payment.
Executive Secretary/ CEO of the council, Mr. Hassan Bello, who spoke with newsmen, listed some of these import –related fraud to include: under-declaration, concealment, under-invoicing, over-invoicing and wrong classification, among others designed to cheat the government by evading duty payment.
But stakeholders have challenged the management of the service to invoke relevant sections of the Customs and Excise Management Act CEMA, especially sections 147 and 154 of the Act, which empowers the service to impound consignments associated with such fraud.
These stakeholders have argued that if the service truly invokes these relevant sections of the CEMA, which also prescribe forfeiture of the consignments to the government in addition to prosecuting the importers and agents, most of them would desist from such unwholesome as against the current practice whereby importers are issued with the DN and allowed to clear the consignments.
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