Oluyinka Onigbinde
The Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Tin Can command, Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede has urged clearing agents operating at the Tin Can Island port to shun the on-going strike and protests by freight forwarders over the VIN Valuation Policy.
The CAC urged the stakeholders to take advantage of the trade facilitation tools available in the Command to resolve any issue that may arise in the clearance process, especially now that the service is advancing to full automation.
The CAC gave the advice while speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting with some freight forwarders on Tuesday.
According to a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Command, Uche Ejesieme, the CAC reiterated the core functions of the service as collection/generation of revenue, suppression of smuggling and border security, facilitation of trade and enforcement of fiscal and monetary policies of the federal government.
He informed that the Service conducted series of Webinar on the subject before it was finally deployed and wondered why the issue has generated furore at a time the Service had thought the process is seamless.
According to him: “On the recent protests carried out by Freight Forwarders as a result of the VIN Policy, the Customs Area Controller charged them to de-emphasize the issue of strike actions for whatever reason as he pointed out that protests have never solved any problem anywhere in the world.
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“He reminded them about the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), the Help Desk, among others as avenues where grievances can be channeled for expeditious resolution.
“The stakeholders had ventilated their challenges beyond the VIN Valuation to other issues hindering their operations and the Customs Area Controller promised to look into the issues very dispassionately to ensure that an enabling environment is created for compliant traders.
“He charged the stakeholders to brace up for the challenges ahead particularly with the anticipated full automation of our processes and procedures and reassured that full automation will lead to ease of doing businesses and called stakeholders to embrace and become ICT savvy to enable them cope with the realities.
“On the raging issue, he advised stakeholders to continue to engage and avoid situation where agents could resort to self-help and create room for miscreants to hijack the process and wreak havoc in the system”. he said.
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