A clearing agent, Mr. Achike Molokwu last week, ranked Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML) very high in the area of clearing of imported vehicles in the ports, even as he floored Five Star Logistics Terminal, accusing the later of delays in the processes.
Doing a comparison while speaking with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, Molokwu explained that it will only take you 30 minutes from the time you punch your cargo to take delivery of the cargo at PTML, while you will spend close to a week to do the same thing at Five Star Logistics.
“Somebody is spending a week to take delivery of one vehicle and somebody is spending 30 minutes to take delivery of the same vehicle. In Grimaldi, if you ‘punch’ today you will take delivery of your cargo the same day, you pay in the morning, before 6pm your vehicles is out and in Five Star you are spending one week”.
He lampooned the federal government on the age limit policy on imported used vehicles, he said it is a bad policy that has subjected Nigerians to hardship.
Molokwu advised the incumbent administration to borrow a leave from what a former president Ibrahim Babangida did where commercial vehicles were imported duty-free.
“The age limit policy on imported vehicle is a nonsense policy and it is very easy to analyze. During Babangida regime, when labour went on strike that N3000 minimum wage was nothing, that the transportation alone was too expensive, Babanginda just issued a circular that all commercial buses will have free duty. So you see by the time there is no duty on commercial buses, you will definitely reduce your price”
Molokwu charged the government to adopt the policy of ‘the newer the vehicle the lower the duty’, stressing that it will help address the issue of importing old and rickety vehicles in the country.
“Why can’t we help ourselves in Nigeria to reduce unemployment, in Ghana the newer the vehicle, the lower the duty. I don’t support the idea of the government opening land borders because all these shipping companies and terminal operators in Nigeria pay high tax to the federal government. By the time their cargoes are diverted to neighboring countries, you will see that they will lay off their staff; it has happened before and I can’t support that”, he advised.
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