Customs Decries Non-compliance By Importers, Agents
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that lack of transparency and false declaration of imports by some unpatriotic importers and agents were the major challenges faced in the cargo clearance process at the seaports.
The service noted that its efforts to facilitate trade at the ports were being hampered by the insincerity of importers in their declarations, thereby putting Customs through much stress and unnecessary waste of time.
Already, the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) had complained that there was a high rate of falsified documents at the ports, under-invoicing and false declaration, saying that clearing agents were culprits of these illicit acts.
He said: “I can tell you categorically that less than 5 per cent of our importers processed their documents genuinely at the ports. We have discovered this through our investigations.
“Out of 100 containers imported into the country, there are hardly 10 containers with the genuine declaration. For anyone Indian that is there, he must be supported by 10 Nigerians because we do not love our own country. You cannot go to their country and do this, but in Nigeria, anybody can come and cheat us.”
Its Deputy National Public Relations Officer, Timi Bomodi, a deputy comptroller said in Lagos that Customs was not in any way out to witch hunt importers and their agents, saying that false declaration had remained the cause of delay in cargo clearance.
He explained: “Compliance is not rocket science. It is just about transparency and honesty. NCS officials are not witch hunters. We, in no way, feel that traders should be made to suffer because we are also consumers in the market. But we expect importers, exporters and agents to be honest and transparent in their activities because it makes our jobs easier.
“When you see a declaration, it is not very difficult to know within one or two minutes if there is something fishy about that declaration. So, it means that for a job that ordinarily should take five minutes to execute because the officer needs to dig deeper and deeper into finding out the truth about the job, he is spending more time and it is a waste. But if you are honest, from the beginning, the officer knows the importer has met the criteria and he’s good to go.
“For a lot of compliant traders, the amount of time they spend in the port is extremely short from when assessment is done and payment is made and goods moved to the Customs zone. The problem we have is with non-compliant traders that cause delay.”
Bomodi urged the importers and agents to ensure their documentations were accurately done to get their consignments out of the port without delay.
The spokesman noted that the Customs had integrated and automated 90 per cent of its activities to ensure seamless trade, pleading the importers and agents to turn a new leaf and begin to be honest with NCS.
According to Bomodi, “The more honest they are with us, the easier it will be for us to clear their consignment out of the port and the cheaper the goods will be at the market.”
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