’21 Customs desk/units impeding trade at Lagos ports’

Some port users at the Apapa and Tin-Can ports at the weekend revealed that cargo evacuation at the ports are very slow because cargoes must pass through 21 desks of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) before exiting the ports.

This is even as the stakeholders added that after leaving the ports, the cargoes face another task of going through another five units of the NCS which is permanently stationed outside the ports.

According to a cross-section of the clearing agents who shared the list of the 21 Customs desks/units to newsmen at the weekend, these Customs desks slow down cargo evacuation because everybody wants to see what others have inspected.

A list of the 21 Customs desk stationed inside the ports and obtained by the Nigerian Tribune are: Form M unit, PAAR unit, Unblocking unit, Abandoned unit, Examination/report unit, DC Report unit, Releasing unit, DC Stamping unit, Gate/Exiting unit, Valuation unit, CPC q and a unit, APM unit, DC Admin unit, DC Compliance unit, CAC monitoring unit, CIU unit, Enforcement unit, OC gate unit, Gate officers unit, Clearance unit and PCA unit.

When contacted on the issue, Spokesman of Nigeria’s second busiest Customs port command, Tin-Can Island Port Customs Command, Uche Ejesieme explained that some of the listed 21 interference units of the Customs are statutory while some are for checks and balancing.

According to the Tin-Can Customs Spokesman, “First, it will be pertinent to acquaint us with the role of the Nigeria Customs Service in the trade value chain and even go further to point out the processes and procedures for a compliant trader.

“For the first, it may interest you to know that the role of customs is just limited to examination and release of cargoes.

This is because the automated system allows for self-assessment/ declaration by the importer or his agent. Therefore whatever you declare would be captured and treated as such except when physical examination proves otherwise.

“For the import procedure, any eligible importer is expected to fill a Form M with the designated bank, attaching all relevant import documents, which will be processed by the bank and uploaded to Customs portal for issuance of Pre Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR). We must note that PAAR will be issued based on the information from the importer. Once issued, the importer proceeds to the port for clearance of cargo.

“Once the importer makes the declaration on Customs NICIS 2 platform, selectivity engine is triggered to the appropriate lane and the importer’s SGD is automatically assigned to a particular Releasing officer for examination and release of cargo.

“However, the interference of any other Customs unit is usually on the outcome of physical examination or privileged intelligence report. it is instructive that of the alleged 21 steps/units, some are statutory requirements for documentation, some for checks and balances, while the rest are actually non-existent.

“For the purpose of this response, its imperative to reiterate that in the course of sensitization exercise with our stakeholders, we have identified three categories of traders namely: Compliant traders, Fairly compliant traders and full non-compliant traders.

“For the first category, it comprises of mostly multinational companies. For the second category, it comprises of those who you must prod to be compliant. While the third category is those that believe that processes must be circumvented despite how simple you might want to make the procedure look.

“However, the good news is that we are embarking on continuous stakeholder engagement, with a view to making the non-compliant traders see reasons to conform with extant laws.”

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