The founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam on Thursday said that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) has caused more troubles for importers instead of facilitating trade.
Aniebonam who said this in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Apapa said that PAAR can only be used for statistical data collections.
Explaining further, he said that most times the Demand Notice (DN) issued after PAAR seems to be higher.
"PAAR has not helped trade in Nigeria at all rather it has caused more troubles. Because we are blowing hot and cold and for obvious reasons PAAR can only be used for statistical data collection and all that just an insider it is budgetary"
"Because you discover that the Demand Notice (DN) issued after PAAR must has been issued tends to even be more than what the PAAR demanded. And again PAAR acts based on what you gave to it or whatever data uploaded hence the issue of compliance"
The NAGAFF founder also accused operators in the maritime industry of frustrating the platform adding that they were not making genuine declarations.
"Compliance is genuine declaration for customs purpose, the PAAR was made to be sacrosanct but the operators never allowed it to work because they were not making genuine declarations and therefore PAAR is irrelevant"
According to him, "what we are doing here is customs examination even destination inspection has no place in the customs law. What is contained in customs law is customs examination and what that means is that even with the PAAR that have been issued you are still under the liberty to make honest declaration" he concluded.
