Oluyinka Onigbinde
Despite government’s directives on the collection of the Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) at the ports by the Council for Regulations of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), AP Moller Terminal (APMT) and nine others have refused to integrate the POF collection into their systems, thereby causing the government to lose millions of naira that would have been accrued into its coffers.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that APMT which is the largest terminal operator in Lagos has been the rallying point for other smaller terminals that have refused to key into the system.
According to findings, the terminals have refused to key into the collection sighting that if APMT which is the largest terminal refused why should they comply.
A document sighted by our correspondent revealed the terminals that are complying, those partially complying and the non-complying terminals.
The non-compliant include: APMT, ABTL, GDNL, WACT, AMS, Eko Support, ICNL, Julius Berger and INTELS
From the facts made available to Shipping Position Daily, terminals that are partially complying are: Five Star Logistics, PTOL, BUA and JOSEPDAM.
Those that have fully complied are: PTML, ENL, TICT and Ports and Cargo.
The Ministry of Transportation has however issued a two-month ultimatum to all the non-compliant terminal operators to integrate the collection of the POF into their portals or face sanction.
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Mrs Magdalene Ajani, the permanent secretary of the ministry, while speaking at a strategic ministerial meeting with stakeholders including terminal operators on the enforcement of POF in Lagos last week, said since the collection of the POF commenced on the 24th of February 2021, some terminal operators have failed to comply, a development which has resulted into loss of revenue to the country.
She said the ministry cannot condone such, while explaining that the job of the ministry is to ensure that government policies are adhered to.
She said that when there is a failure of adherence; it leaves the ministry with no choice but to look at the sanctions that could follow such disobedience.
She said the ministry will give two months grace period for all terminal operators to key in, after which she said sanctions will be applied to those who failed to abide by the collection of the POF.
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