Even as stakeholders intensify their anguish over the Customs Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), the Customs Area Controller in charge of the nation’s biggest customs command; Mr Charles Edike has assured that, there has been a significant improvement in the issuance of the all-important cargo clearance document.
The controller of Apapa Area 1 Command of the Nigeria Customs Service said yesterday that, in most cases, RAAR is issued even within hours, even before the importer “gets home”.
Even as stakeholders intensify their anguish over the Customs Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR), the Customs Area Controller in charge of the nation’s biggest customs command; Mr Charles Edike has assured that, there has been a significant improvement in the issuance of the all-important cargo clearance document.
The controller of Apapa Area 1 Command of the Nigeria Customs Service said yesterday that, in most cases, RAAR is issued even within hours, even before the importer “gets home”.
He said that the teething problems that were associated with Pre-Arrival Assessment Report are gradually coming to an end even as he disclosed that a total of 28,861,000 PAARs have been released in April.
The command also raked a whooping N22, 132,876,041.87k between April 1 and 28, 2014.
The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Charles Edike gave the disclosure during a roundtable meeting with journalists under the aegis of Maritime Correspondence Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON) in Lagos.
According to him, the command revenue collection on a daily basis has been impressive; he attributed the improvement to technological advancement and dedication of the officers and men of the command.
The Apapa command boss also added that the command now collects above N1billion daily, which he described as a huge addition to the overall revenue collection of the service.
Specifically, Edike told the journalists that the service is rolling out PAAR smoothly at the moment, pointing out that the teething problems of the PAAR regime is almost a thing of the past.
He said that between April 1and 28 this year, the command has issued out 28, 861,000 PAAR as against what all the service providers issued, even as he commended officers of the command for being highly compliant with the latest technological innovation.
“Initially, when we were dealing with the 99,000 Form ‘M’ that were not perfected by the service providers alone is enormous task for us and when you add that to the teething problem of PAAR itself, then you will agree with me that, certainly you will understand the kind of challenge the service will be faced with", he said.
"We are happy that PAAR is coming out beautifully and I must say that we are coming out of the storm gradually and as we speak PAAR is now being transmitted with ease, PAAR is rolling out smoothly and before the importer gets home after processing his form M", the PAAR will be ready before that same night" Edike stated.
He also said that the service is serving the entire nation , sub region and neighbouring countries as regards import because the Nigerian market is not for the country alone but for other neighbouring states, even as far as centre Africa.
Edike revealed that the backlog encountered by the command has been resolved saying that technological input before now was the major problem faced by the command.
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