The Lillypond command of the Nigeria Customs Service said that it collected N5, 163, 817, 925 as revenue within the first quarter of 2014.
Concessionaire at the command; Lillypond Container Terminal Limited has equally assured operators that it was acquiring more cargo handling equipment to cope with the increased volume of cargoes transferred to the terminal daily.
Controller of the command's custom, Mrs Isa Tallatu made this disclosure at a recent monthly stakeholders meeting held at the command.
The Lillypond command of the Nigeria Customs Service said that it collected N5, 163, 817, 925 as revenue within the first quarter of 2014.
Concessionaire at the command; Lillypond Container Terminal Limited has equally assured operators that it was acquiring more cargo handling equipment to cope with the increased volume of cargoes transferred to the terminal daily.
Controller of the command's custom, Mrs Isa Tallatu made this disclosure at a recent monthly stakeholders meeting held at the command.
Tallatu also said that for the month of April which has not ended yet as at the time of the meeting, the command had already collected the sum of N2.2billion as revenue.
A breakdown of the revenue shows that N2,235, 780, 825 was collected in January 2014, N1,519, 359, 221 was collected in February while the sum of N1,408, 677, 879 was collected in March 2014.
The Controller attributed the revenue increase to the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) which according to her, is now issued within 24 hours. She also commended the freight forwarders and other operators at the command for their compliance which she said has aided trade facilitation.
"I need to appreciate everyone for their efforts, this month we made 2.2billion as revenue. I need to appreciate you all for the efforts in trade facilitation"
"Everybody in this meeting will agree with me that PAAR is now coming out very well, this happened by the grace of God, and the CGC in his magnanimity decided to get us into a new platform where you can upload your document and that very day you get your PAAR" she said.
Tallatu however charged freight forwarders to henceforth hold their banks accountable if there are challenges noticed in the issuance of PAAR.
She also charged the agents not to always write or head to Abuja once they have issues concerning PAAR, according to her, the command has set up a dispute resolution committee to handle all issues relating to PAAR, hence cases should be reported to them.
She stressed that, "If there is any problem, question your bank, the banks may be the saboteurs and the enemy within, but for the customs we have no problem"
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily after the closed door meeting, Lillypond Chapter Chairman of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Rev. Emmanuel Agubanze said that operators have been facing challenges with the positioning of their containers for examination.
According to him, the terminal operators were not expecting the sudden upsurge in cargo volume at the terminal, considering the fact that they had last year announced that they were closing shop due to consistent loss in revenue.
"We had challenges of handling equipment but they are now putting measures in place to address it, they informed us that they have ordered for more equipment from APMT and it is coming this weekend, this will augment what they have on ground so that more containers will be positioned" he said
Also speaking with our correspondent, Chairman of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Mr. Chucks Njemanze pointed out that there is cordial relationship among operators at the command.
He revealed that Customs is making success at the command because stakeholders were compliant in making sure that no revenue leakage and sharp practices is allowed.
Njemanze also noted that, since the customs upgraded its transmission of PAAR, there has been a faster issuance of PAAR. “We are not saying it is at its best, but it is faster than what we had two months ago" he stressed
Discussion about this post