The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has condemned in clear terms the recent drop in revenue realised by the Nigerian Customs Service, (NCS) and also called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency nip it in the bud before it gets too late.
National Coordinator, 100% Compliance Team of NAGAFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko who made this known while addressing journalists at Compliance Secretariat on Thursday, 18 May, 2023 in Lagos revealed that the Compliance Finance Intelligence Unit has discovered that the Customs revenue has recently dropped by about 7%, no thanks to the suspension given to First Bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria due to the former’s failure to do proper remittance to the apex bank.
Alhaji Tanko who suggested a way out of the current quagmire is the alternative area code to zero duty payment, and reconcile transactions thereafter using other banks “for instance as a freight forwarder I am ready to pay my duty but could not do so because of the suspension don’t forget there are lots of shipments on board waiting to pay their duties, the current situation also prevent freight forwarders from capturing because you must capture before you can pay duty. What the Nigerian Customs needs to do is, since First Bank has an issue with the Central Bank, why can’t they open a window and allow freight forwarders make payment pending when the issue between First Bank and the Central Bank will be resolved.”
The National Coordinator also decried the issue which has been dragging since almost two weeks now and yet nothing is being done about it. He said “for the past two weeks now, the Nigerian Customs has not been able to generate any revenue from import duties because CBN suspends First Bank of Nigeria from collecting import duties for failing to remit the ones collected earlier to the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
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Another reason which was attributed to the low income being generated by the Nigerian Customs is the impending change in government which is making importers afraid of bringing in goods as a result of the new administration policies which might not be favourable to them, this make importers afraid of making declarations for boxes already on ground because of customs threat of falling revenue.
One of the major reasons highlighted by Alhaji Tanko is the exemption of import duty granted multi-nationals by the Ministry of Finance also contributed to the drop in revenue.
He said “the bulk of revenue realised by the Customs is from the multi-national companies, granting them exemption is like pouring water inside the ocean so by asking Dangote, Flour Mills and the rest not to pay duties maybe because of some agreement or contracts between them while you mandate a freight forwarder with only two containers to pay duty, not knowing that some importers hide under this multi-nationals, import goods and fail to pay duties.
We are calling on the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, to review the exemption granted to the multi-nationals so that they will stop abusing the privilege being given to them” he maintained,
Alhaji Tanko who appealed to the Federal Government to look inward and encourage local industries to thrive instead of depending solely on importation at the detriment of home based industries also appealed to the Comptroller-General of Customs Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd)to assist in the training of young freight forwarders so as to enable them to fully understand customs process and operations thereby turning them into bonafide professionals.
By Ajibola Adedoye