Oluyinka Onigbinde
Investigation by Shipping Position Daily has revealed that a whooping N480 million may have been incurred by importers as demurrage and storage charges in the last one week owing to the withdrawal of services by clearing agents operating at the Tin Can and PTML in Lagos port over the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) valuation policy that was recently introduced by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
With about 1800 vehicles cleared out of the Ports and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) and Five Star Logistics Terminal at Tin-Can Island port daily, checks by Shipping Position Daily however revealed that about 6000 vehicles are currently trapped at the Ports and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) and Five Star Logistics since the clearing agents began their strike last week Monday, vehicles importers have accumulated huge storage charges as vehicles cannot be cleared out of the two RoRo terminals at Tin Can ports.
Further checks by our correspondent revealed that four vessels with over 8,000 vehicles are expected to berth at the two ports between Wednesday last week and today (Monday) this is according to information obtained from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). The four vessels are: Paglia, Grande Sierra Leone, Grande Cotonou, and Grande Cameroon. They will berth at the PTML between February 24th and 28th.
Our correspondent who spoke with a member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr Sobola Salaudeen was reliably informed that terminal operators charge storage fees three days from the date the vessel berthed at the port to discharge vehicles. He informed that PTML and Five Star Logistics charge N5,000 on each vehicle for the first five days it stayed in the terminal, while N10,000 is charged daily for vehicles that stayed between six to 10 days and N15,000 charged daily for vehicles between 11 to 15 days.
This was corroborated by other clearing agents, who also acknowledged that the burden of demurrage and storage fees to terminal operators await them.
It was gathered that PTML has over 10,000 units of vehicles while Five Star Logistics Terminal has the capacity to receive over 5000 units of vehicles.
When our correspondent contacted the general manager, PTML; Mr Tunde Keshinro, on the possibility of granting a waiver of demurrage/storage charges incurred as a result of the strike that was embarked upon by clearing agents, he abruptly told our correspondent “No Comments, I don’t want to comment on this please”.
As our correspondent tried to probe further if there is a form of waiver clause to be given to importers Mr. Keshinro abruptly cut the call.
Our correspondent who also sought the reaction of the Five Star Logistic terminal regarding the issue was also unsuccessful as the customer care manager, of the company at Tin Can Island port, Chuks Okereafor, told our correspondent: “If you know where Comet head office is situated, please go there, Comet is Five Star head office, you can speak to the Managing Director” he said.
Meanwhile, clearing agents have vowed to continue their protest until the Customs Service yields to their demands of not using Internet-generated value to determine the duty payable on imported vehicles.
In a chat with Shipping Position Daily, the vice president, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto said before valuation on vehicles are arrived at, certain issues should be considered.
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“They have to reverse the policy so that people can go back to work. We must agree on the value and we must put a lot of things into consideration because the law says Tokunbo vehicles enjoy rebate and that hasn’t been implemented in the new policy as they still use internet value which is not admissible if not, clearing agents will continue with the strike,” he said.
However, when contacted the Public Relations Officer of the NCS PTML command informed our correspondent that despite the ongoing strike against the VIN, genuine importers have started paying customs duty on vehicles. He said that the command collected N1.3 billion last week Wednesday from valuation despite protest by the agents.
When contacted, the National Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomodi, said the service will commence stakeholder engagement this week.
Bomodi said the service expected resistance to the policy and stated that clearing agents and importers are the ultimate beneficiary of the VIN valuation policy.
“Clearing agents have been engaged at PTML and Tin Can Island and their leaders have been spoken to. We told them what the service intends to do, going forward and we will carry out more enlightenment on this issue by next week. We will be in Lagos for a town hall meeting with stakeholders and hopefully, we will resolve this issue once and for all” he said.
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