Customs Warns Importers, Agents

Worried by the continuous leak of revenue as a result of improper documentation, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has read the riot act to erring importers and agents.

The move, according to the NCS, was informed by the alleged breach in documenting full details of vehicular goods on the ship manifest.

Specifically, Customs said henceforth, ships laden with vehicular goods in its manifest must contain full details of such goods such as chasis registration number and year of manufacture.

Assistant Comptroller of Customs/Zonal Coordinator Zone A, Lagos, Victor Gbemudu made this disclosure during his maiden briefing at a meeting with Area Controllers within the Lagos Command.

According to him, the Comptroller General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi had directed that all area controllers in the country should comply with the directive in their various commands.

He said the management was keenly monitoring Lagos zone’s activities due to its strategic importance to the country’s revenue collection.

He said the service was determined to ensure that revenue leakage was reduced to the barest minimum at the ports, adding that importers should comply with the new directive.

Besides, he said the move was also informed by the need to ensure that the service meets the revenue target set for it by government

“The management has noted and I am hereby reiterating it to you as controllers of your various commands in Lagos that forthwith ships laden for Nigeria, especially those carrying cars must show the chasis numbers and year of manufacture. This should be boldly stated in the manifest. Failure to comply would amount to no ship being allowed into the ports. These are ways we’ve devised to block revenue leakages in our operations and we have decided to curb that forthwith. So I want you to note this and we must comply with it. The Chasis number must be fully written. We know what we are driving at and we know where we are coming from,” Gbemudu said.

The Zonal Coordinator, however, assured port users that the benchmark’s suspension, would not bring about congestion at the ports, adding that not all containers go through examination procedure.

—Esther Komolafe