There are indications that the acclaimed success of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) system being operated by the Nigeria Customs Service has not impacted on the Murtala Mohammed International Airport command of the service, the command said that its revenue is dwindling.
There are indications that the acclaimed success of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) system being operated by the Nigeria Customs Service has not impacted on the Murtala Mohammed International Airport command of the service, the command said that its revenue is dwindling.
Shipping Position Daily correspondent who visited the command gathered that the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Airport Command, Mr. Ndalati Garba had early yesterday lamented the dwindling revenue at an emergency stakeholders meeting he convened with DTI Cafe operators and all clearing agents.
Also speaking with our correspondent exclusively, the image maker of the command, Mrs. Thelma Williams also corroborated this, even as she said that the command had not been meeting its revenue target.
The Murtala Mohammed Airport command according to her has a monthly target of N4.5billion, but its monthly revenue has not exceeded N2.6billion since January.
Public Relations Officer of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Airport Chapter, Mr. Emmanuel Njokwu told Shipping Position Daily that the CAC had at the stakeholders meeting pleaded with the various associations to sensitize their members on the need for compliance so as to boost the command's revenue.
According to him the customs boss had blamed the various DTI operators largely for the dwindling revenue.
"Everybody will be forced to comply now, before you go to the DTI cafes, you must be prepared with your correct information".
"We have promised the CAC that we will talk to our people so that we can beef up the revenue base of the command which the Controller complained that its dwindling down, we will rally round our colleagues to see that the revenue improves, We have to start making sincere declarations", he said.
He also said that an appeal has also gone out from customs to the DTI operators to be more mindful of what they capture, so that people can pay customs duty reasonably.
On his part, Chairman of the Airport Chapter of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Mr. Segun Musa blamed the decline in revenue to market factors.
According to him, "revenue is a fluctuating factor, sometimes the traffic might be high and yet the value of items might be low, it is a matter of projection"
"We have assured the CAC that we will keep improving, our best might not have been enough, but it’s not the time to lay accusing fingers on anyone; either customs or agents" Segun Musa argued.
He said that stakeholders are desperately trying to retain the records of the command as the best customs command in the whole federation.
But the image maker of the Airport Customs Command told Shipping Position Daily that, major issues placed on the front burners at the meeting included; flagrant abuse of the use of agency license without owner’s knowledge, use of unapproved CIF value for declaration, processing and assessment.
Others according to her include: "use of wrong consignee TIN in generating assessment, use of agency licenses not authorized to operate at the command, use of wrong HS code, cut in CIF value in generating assessment, introduction of authority card form C30 among others"
A break down of revenue collected by the command from January to April 2014 showed that it collected N2, 579, 165, 257, 68 billion in January, N2, 591, 609, 133, 92 in February and N2, 490, 896, 886.98 in March. Revenue for April 2014 stood at N2, 682, 482, 333.8.
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