Fresh fear has been raised that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) may have challenges with its planned collection of Practitioners Operations Fee (POF), even as the payment process is yet to be linked with the Single Window platform of the Nigeria Customs Service and other government revenue collecting agencies.
Fresh fear has been raised that the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) may have challenges with its planned collection of Practitioners Operations Fee (POF), even as the payment process is yet to be linked with the Single Window platform of the Nigeria Customs Service and other government revenue collecting agencies.
Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF); Dr. Boniface Aniebonam heightened the fear in Lagos yesterday, where he picked holes in the method of collection, saying that there are too many loopholes for freight forwarders to exploit.
At a brief demonstration by the CRFFN which held at the NAGAFF headquarters in Apapa Lagos yesterday on how the POF will be collected, some freight forwarders said categorically that the POF might go the way of the Wharf Landing Fee where freight forwarders usually avoid payment.
According to them, "from the demonstration by the CRFFN consultant, it would be very easy to avoid payment of POF, this is because CRFFN under the transport ministry has not connected it with finance ministry, and if you don't pay, there is no mechanism whereby your cargo can be delayed in order to force you to pay".
Our correspondent also gathered from the demonstration that there is no integration between CRFFN and the Single Window Platform which integrates the Nigeria Customs and other government agencies collecting revenue at the port.
Apparently not satisfied after the CRFFN consultants had demonstrated how to access the CRFFN portal to make payment, Dr. Aniebonam said that, "there are some people that will want to cheat this process"
"There are loopholes in the process of entering the system and making the payment of this money, I think your boss (Dr. Mike Jukwe) needs to come down here and make clarifications"
"Entering the system might not even be the problem, but enforcement is very important, if you don't block these loopholes people will cheat" Aniebonam warned.
He however stressed the need for the collection and payment of the POF, since part of the money is to be utilized by the association's to develop capacity of their members.
Aniebonam also urged all NAGAFF members to ensure compliance and ensure genuine declaration whenever they are inputting information into the CRFFN portal.
Also speaking, President of NAGAFF; Chief Eugene Nweke however warned that all members of the association must accept POF, saying that they owe it a point of duty or else, they might face jail terms.
"The concept is not too far from the PAAR concept, as a professional, we owe it a point of duty to pay the money, the old era of impunity is gone and every freight forwarder must have i-pads and computers to do this job"
"This will not impede on trade, rather it would facilitate trade, as soon as you started payment of customs duty, pay your POF, once you pay, the message goes round, and CRFFN has the shipping manifest of every cargo, so there is no hiding"
"Also as a warning for those with the clearing agent mentality must wake up because there is a tribunal and code of conduct, if you go against it, or you invade duty, you will pay a hearing fee of N150,000, and whatever decision taken at the tribunal by the Judge can only be appealed at the Appeal Court, you might go to prison" he warned.
Eugene said that the National Assembly and the Ministry of Justice have been notified of the collection and this is an indication that freight forwarders have come of age.
Managing Director of NETPOST PAY, the consultants to CRFFN on the POF collection; Mr. Kelechi Dozie told press men that a unique transaction number will be issued to freight forwarders after they make payment of POF, adding that cargoes will only be released with the number.
"There would always be reconciliation of the manifest at the end of every month, each payment is tracked to each bill of laden, so you cannot clear your goods without a unique transaction number, once we do a cross reference at the end of the month and there is discrepancy, we will make a report to the transport ministry"
"We are the same group that helped the Nigerian Immigration and Drivers Licenses, we have helped to automate their process and increase their revenue, this is the same professionalism we are bringing into the maritime industry", he said.
He said that the company is working with Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBS) to ensure that the enforcement agency and the association's are able to access payment.
He said that POS will be made available to the CRFFN field officers. He also said that NIBS is connected to the 25 banks in Nigeria where POF can be paid.
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