The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has lauded the use of manifest by shipping companies at the seaports for the importation of vehicles into the country, saying that the process has helped in the generation of more revenue unlike what is observed at the land borders.
The chairman, Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML) chapter of NAGAFF; Mr Judge Okafor, who said this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily last week, also said that he was in support of whatever that will help the government to generate more revenue whether it is ban on land importation of vehicles or not.
This is coming few weeks after a former Idiroko chapter chairman of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Mr. Abel Ayokunle, said that several smuggled vehicles come into the country on a daily basis without the knowledge of the customs, even as he appealed to the Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali(Rtd) to lift the ban on the importation of vehicles through the land borders to enable the government generate more revenue.
But Okafor also maintained that the government generates more revenue from the importation of vehicles through the seaports than the land borders, adding that the use of manifest by the shipping companies enables customs to monitor payment of customs duty on vehicles before they exit the ports.
“On the issue of lifting the ban on land importation, I won’t say it is good or not, but whatever they will help in the facilitation of trade is okay. But if you ask me, I will say that the nation will generate more revenue bringing in goods through the seaports than the land borders.
Because at the border ports, there is no manifest for shipping companies, but here at the seaport it will be manifested and while you are manifesting it there, it will be in the portal of customs and they will monitor it even the payment of duty, but there is nothing like that at the border stations”
Explaining further, he said that unlike the manifest, what they will give you at the land border is a DN after the vehicles must have entered into the country and you will not pay up to the actual duty of the vehicle.
“All those forgeries are not in the system, they do it in all these outside computers, but when you try it with customs platform it will not go through. So it is not in PTML portal, if you Google it, you won’t see anything like PTML there, they call it – let my people go. All the custom officers on the roads they have their laptops once they put it in their system it will tell you if the duties have been paid or not and that will tell you where to pay the duty. In terms of the government making their maximum revenue, the seaport is better but if they want to open the border to decongest the ports not problem”
“But at the border there is nothing like that it is just on transit, when the vehicles comes into the country, they will now give you DN to pay that is when the customs sees the vehicles and by then you have released it. So there is no way the customs will see it, but here once the manifest gets to the system they will monitor the job once they are punching it you will see it there and by then you would know if the payment is appropriate or not that is where you can now block it or allow it to go”
According to him, whether the government lifts the ban on the importation of vehicles through the land borders or not, people will still smuggle cars into the country.
“These vehicles are not smuggled through the air, somebody must have seen the process going on, even if the government lifts the ban on land importation of vehicles, smuggled vehicles must come in while the ones that want to pay their duty will bring the vehicles and pay the appropriate duty. The smugglers no matter what you do will still smuggle the vehicle, so even if you lift the ban they must smuggle without paying the appropriate duty. The year is just starting and we are hopeful that after this election things will change for good. I know that this election many importers want to calm down till after the election that why things are a bit slow now ” , he concluded.
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