The Customs Area Controller in charge of Tin Can Island Port, Comptroller Musa Baba Abdullahi has said that the Customs is set to automate it's valuation data base, with ultimate aim of achieving uniformed value on vehicles with the recent deployment of the second phase of the Nigerian Customs Integrated System (NICIS) .
At a press briefing which was coordinated by the National Public Relations Officer of Customs; Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah at Tin Can port yesterday, Compt. Musa noted that henceforth, a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) would now be used to calculate duty on vehicles, the year of manufacture and other information.
He assured that the command is committed to contributing the economic growth and competitiveness through trade facilitation and ease of doing business initiative of the Federal Government by making customs process and procedures more efficient.
According to Musa, the Tin Can Customs under his watch is aware of the 48 hours cargo clearance time, and it has therefore deployed the 'Time Release Studies' as performance indicators to guide its performance.
"With the deployment of NICIS 2, maybe at the second phase, the valuation data base would be automated in such a way that, using the VIN number, it would give you all necessary description of the vehicle, engine capacity, country of origin, type, brand and so on, at the end of the day, it would also give you the value"
"We are already meeting, consultations are going on, so that we can have this harmonisation, I am sure that in no distant time it would happen" , he said.
"We are deploying software to handle the remaining export procedure automation, it would enable record of non-oil export, agricultural product and other manufacturing products" he said
The Customs boss also said that the Dispute Resolution Committee at the command has been rejigged.
On assumption of office, he had directed that all issues arising from dispute must be attended to with dispatch, meaning that no dispute should remain for more than six hours.
The committee has also been directed to seat on daily basis for resolution of issues. In addition, he said the command has re-engineered its ’Help Desk', domiciled at the commands Public Relations Officers' office
"Part of what is endemic in this operation is the issue of dispute resolution, prior to this time, the dispute resolution committee were meeting twice in week to deliberate on conflict arising from valuation, classification, PAAR issues and so on"
"Revenue leakages shall be blocked for us to meet our revenue target of 354billion, so far, today we have collected 62 billion"
"NICIS 2 is to reduce transaction cost, ensure quick cargo clearance, stakeholders are undergoing training for efficient transition ", he added.
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