• Importers, Agents To Pay High Demurrage
Most licensed customs agents who resumed at their normal duty posts yesterday at the various customs commands in Lagos to effect the release of their containers were disappointed as the customs releasing officers were unavailable. They were said to have gone to Abuja for a meeting with the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi Inde.
• Importers, Agents To Pay High Demurrage
Most licensed customs agents who resumed at their normal duty posts yesterday at the various customs commands in Lagos to effect the release of their containers were disappointed as the customs releasing officers were unavailable. They were said to have gone to Abuja for a meeting with the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi Inde.
The’ releasing officers’ who are of the rank of Assistant Comptrollers are the only officers saddled with the responsibility of releasing cargoes and they are the only officers with the required password. Shipping Position Daily gathered that they were summoned to Abuja on Sunday April 22, 2012 and that the releasing of cargoes from the ports was suspended for two days.
A source told our correspondent that the meeting was the second leg of an earlier meeting that the CG had held with the Area Comptrollers of each command, which subsequently led to the announcement of the suspension of the controversial benchmark.
However, a reliable source hinted that the CAC's did not brief the AC's about their meeting with the CG concerning the suspension of the benchmark, and that since there was no written order from the CG about the suspension, this has made the releasing officers to continue using the benchmark.
“But because of the complaints from clearing agents, they needed to hear directly from the Comptroller General himself so they were summoned to Abuja” the source said.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) yesterday issued a public notice which was sighted by our correspondent at the Tin Can Island Port, in the notice, the association appealed to clearing agents to corporate with the Customs and not forment any trouble.
But speaking with Shipping Position Daily on the cost implication of the two days suspension of release at Tin Can Port, Lagos yesterday, a freight forwarder who is a member of ANLCA, Mr. Isaac Ndukwe complained that there was no prior notification of the two days absence from the customs and that the suspension of release has huge financial implications on the freight forwarders.
"We were very shocked when we got the news this morning, they know what we are going through in terms of demurrage at the terminals and shipping companies, we are the ones bearing the pains and yet they decided to do this, it is uncalled for and it is telling on importers and the agents"
According to Mr. Ndukwe, the shipping companies collect N8,000 for a 40-foot container everyday as well as the terminal operators, and importers are not always ready to listen to any form of complains that will lead to extra payments from them. “We are going to bear the losses for these two days and there is nothing we can do” he resigned.
Another freight forwarder and a member of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Mr. Anthony Agugbua said that “with the absence of the Deputy Comptrollers and the Assistant Comptrollers, the job cannot move, containers that are dropped will only be examined by the officers that they trust but it cannot be released because it is only the Assistant Comptrollers that has the password to release any cargo from the port”
Another freight forwarder, Mr. Okey Nerus told our correspondent that “the customs going to Abuja obviously is as a result of the withdrawal of the benchmark regime which they introduced, but let’s wait and see, because they are the only ones who have the sole responsibility of releasing cargoes, it means that work for today will be grounded until they come back”
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