Fresh indications have emerged that the Federal Government's ban on importation of vehicles through land borders has not succeeded in curbing smuggling through the various land borders.
This is even as operators at the Idiroko Border have appealed to the Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Alli to lift the ban, saying that thousands of vehicles being smuggled into Nigeria through land borders should be allowed to pay duty to the federal government.
Confirming some of the challenges at the Idiroko border to our correspondent, frontline clearing agent and former Chairman of Idiroko chapter of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr Abel Ayokunle said that documents for most of the smuggled cars are being forged at the Tin Can Island port and the Apapa port.
Meanwhile, he lamented that genuine clearing agents at the border are always idle without any cargo to clear.
Abel stated that "Our appeal is for the CG to be lenient with the border post operators and lift the ban on cars, these cars are still being smuggled into the country in a heavy manner, and these are vehicles that can still generate revenue into the purse of the federal government"
"Some people are willing to pay duty on their cars that they mistakenly bought here, but they cannot verify the original entry from the fake one, yet Customs is threatening them, they cannot move freely as they wish"
"Before now, you can go to Cotonou and buy the cars, pay the duty and have a rest of mind, but today, anybody driving a new car along that road does not have a rest of mind.
They are forging papers at Tin Can, Apapa and everywhere"
"The government themselves want people to be consuming smuggled goods rather than the one that is dutiable"
"Millions of cars are coming into Nigeria every blessed day, how many can the Customs apprehend? Customs officers are helpless, except they want to lose their lives, even the solders they were using to go on their patrol for safety purpose, they have all been posted to Boko Haram-infested areas", he said
The former ANLCA Chairman also lamented that the borders have been shut against vehicle imports for two years, saying that it is time to open the border and let Nigerians smile.
According to him, "It is only general goods that come into Idiroko occasionally, we sit down from morning till night playing games at the office, except you are interested in smuggling, smuggling is what is thriving at the border, those who are carrying rice, cars and so on, but a professional clearing agent would never be involved in all that, but the professional clearing agents are not having anything to do"
"The command gets its major revenue from excise and the general goods. Those who are our members are passing through Seme border, and we don't want a situation whereby Idiroko and Seme border chapters would be struggling for same customer, whichever area is convenient for them is where they follow"
"As for the agents, we are only paying money to the government to renew our licenses, we don't get any job", he lamented.
Confirming this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily, spokesman for the Idiroko Command of the Nigeria Customs, Mr. Abdullahi Maiwada disclosed that the command was unable to realize its revenue target for year 2018.'
He said the command was only able to meet over 70% of the target, he however said the amount generated in 2018 surpassed what was collected in 2017.
According to him, the anti smuggling operations at the border are what have triggered more revenue for commands at the seaports.
“Our anti smuggling operations here is what gingered more revenue at the seaports, if we don’t block here, the area would be porous , we have achieved so much in anti smuggling activities”
“Last year, we seized just 21,000 bags of rice, but this year, we seized more than 52,000 bags of rice, the difference is humongous. In vehicles also, we seized 471 vehicles, in all ramification, there has been tremendous developments” he said.
Maiwada gave two major source of revenue at the Idiroko border to include items which are not restricted from coming through land borders including ceiling, kitchen utensils.
“The second mode of collection is on excise duty, that is duty collected on locally manufactured goods, these goods are mostly alcoholic drinks so they charged to pay duties and these companies are enormous in Ogun State”
“Another means of revenue is on baggage importation, cargoes that are not large enough to generate PAAR, we do what is called baggage assessment and we collect revenue on these goods”, he said.
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