Freight Forwarders Shut Down Tin Can Ports

Freight forwarders operating at the Tin Can Island port in Lagos last week totally withdrew their services from the port thereby crippling all operational activities at the port.
The service withdrawal was jointly endorsed by all the freight forwarding associations operating in the port and they have indicted the Tin Can Island Port custom command of high handedness and unnecessarily increasing duty payable on consignments.
Other grievances that were tabled by the freight forwarders are alleged  arbitrary charges from the terminal operators at the port even as there were also complaints over the moneys demanded by a shipping company; Soccar Talamiz for the use of their car park which is opposite the Customs Processing Centre.
According to the chairman of the Tin Can Island port chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) Mr. Kayode Farinto who spoke with Shipping Position Weekly, the excesses of the Customs was getting out of hands. “We can not allow terminal operators and shipping companies in collaboration with men of the Nigeria customs to continue to extort us through collection of arbitrary charges, the duties they are demanding from us over importation is too high and unless they accede to our request there is no going back” he said.
Also, while comparing the rate at which consignments are cleared at Tin Can with what is obtainable in other terminals, the chairman of the Tin Can chapter of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Mr. Jude Maduka told our correspondent in a telephone conversation that “there is a considerable margin in the cost of clearing goods at Tin Can compared to PTML”
According to him, what led to the final breakdown was as a result of the Customs Area Controller,  Mr Austen Warikoru directing that all the clearing agents should vacate the CPC.
A source told our correspondent that the customs command has appealed to the leadership of both associations for them to resume operations but the members have refused to bulge until there is a reduction in the charges.