Joshua Yousouph
Clearing agents operating at the Seme border in Lagos have decried the double duty payable on imports through the and the cost of clearing the cargoes through the land border.
They also claimed that the high cost of importation through the land border at Seme has led to job losses as importers now prefer to patronize the seaports.
Speaking exclusively with Shipping Position Daily last week, the Seme Chapter Chairman of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Bisiriyu Lasisi revealed that despite almost two years of the opening of the Seme border, importers and clearing agents operating there still pay a higher duty compared to what obtains at Lagos ports.
Lasisi lamented that importation at the Seme border has remained the same due to double taxation and high cost of duty charged on importers.
He revealed that the Cotonou port which is expected to be a transit port still charges importers as high as N1.7 million for 20 feet containers and N2million for 40 feet containers before they are allowed to transit to the Seme border where they still pay duties to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The ANLCA Chieftain said double taxation at the Seme border has discouraged many importers from clearing their consignment through the land border, but they rather prefer to go through the Lagos ports where the total cost of duty and other expenses are lesser.
He however called for the reduction of import and transit duty placed on importers by the Benin Republic government in order to encourage import through the land borders and also make the business profitable.
He also noted that one of the current predominant activities at the Seme border post is the registration of applicants who seek to apply and write the ECOWAS and International English Language Testing System (IELTS) certification exams.
In his words: “What is hampering importing through Cotonou is because of the increased duty that Cotonou is still charging us on each container to be cleared into the border. We clear 20ft Containers with N1.3m and 40 ft containers with N1.6m, N1.7m, or N2m depending on the items before you leave Cotonou port, which should ordinarily be a transit port to the border. Then you will now come to the border to pay the main duty. When you now add up all the expenses, you will discover that it will cost higher to import from the border compared to the Lagos ports.
“If Cotonou can bring down their price charts from what they collect now on 20ft and 40ft containers respectively, the other expense we spend at Cotonou port will serve as profits for the importers because what is applicable at the border now is the same thing applicable at the port. We have the same PAAR Issuance for the Lagos Ports and all the Land Borders. They go with the same tariffs.
“Goods from third-party countries are coming into the Lagos ports and not paying any charges anywhere. In Cotonou, we pay some amount of Millions before we can transit our goods. That is why the traffic at the border still remains the same after many years of being opened. What is working more at the border is the ECOWAS, IETLS and all”, Lasisi said.
On his part, another clearing agent who operates at Seme border, Mr. Innocent Elum, who is also Secretary, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), also affirmed the double cost of importation through Seme border. He noted that the current cost of clearing cargoes at the border is outrageous due also to the high exchange rate.
According to him, it cost 1,000,000 CFA to clear a 40 feet container from the border which was formerly equivalent to N300,000. However, Elum said the current exchange equivalence for 1,000,000 CFA is almost N1m.
Elum called on the Federal Government to look into their policies, taking the exchange rate into consideration and see how they can make things better for the business of the people at the border.
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“If you put together the duty charged on containers at the border and what we are being charged by Cotonou authorities, you will find out that they are very outrageous and that is exactly why importers are not patronizing the area since the opening of the border. What makes Cotonou charges look outrageous is because of the current exchange rate. Before now, 1m CFA was just about N300,000. It is still the same 1milion CFA that is required to clear a 40ft container, but if you convert it now, it is almost the same N1m. It is not as if Cotonou charges high, it is the exchange rate that is making it look outrageous.
“Benin Republic is a sovereign country. We cannot tell them what to do in terms of their policies. We have been trying to talk to them, but there is little or nothing we can do in terms of pressuring them to bring down their charges. But we need to talk about our own country. We expect that our country should put the condition of things into consideration and reduce the charges of what it takes to bring in a container here at the border.
“Our government should look into this, taking the exchange rate into consideration and see how they can make things better for the business people at the border. The fact that goods are coming in only through the Lagos port is one of the basic reasons we have congestion and inefficiencies at the ports. We hope the government does something about this.
“We have been talking to the federal government. It has been established that there was practically no reason for the closure of the border in the first place. We lost more than 58 of our members who are freight forwarders here at the border. Many of them die out of losing their businesses and heartbreak. Some importers also died. We have been talking to the government to see how they can clamp down on some of the policies that are affecting us but it seems as if the government is not listening. We are suffering here” Elum concluded.
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