Contrary to the claims by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Alhaji Dr. Dikko Inde Abdullahi that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) when fully operational would become a final document for clearance of goods at the ports, the Service (NCS) has said that PAAR could best seen as advisory document at the moment.
The National Public Relations Officer of NCS, Mr. Wale Adeniyi who disclosed this in an interview monitored by Primetime Reporters identified dishonest attitude of importers who under-declare their imports in a bid to short change the government and the lack of technical know- how of some officers as reasons why the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) was not a final document for clearance of goods at the port.
Adeniyi explained that PAAR would have been a final document but for errors which according to him could emanate from an officer or an importer, it had become an advisory document.
He stated that just as importers had the right to appeal when they felt an item had been overvalued, the same was applicable to officers who have the right to query PAAR when they felt that importers undedeclared their cargo.
According to him,“how final is the PAAR document if an importer can come back and tell us he has been over-valued and we listen to him? It becomes semi-final because it means they now have to adjust it.We have also seen instances where officers look at PAAR and feel that based on physical examination, the figures quoted were not accurate and they would do amendment”.
“ It is both ways, people should not just talk about one way because that is the angle with which they want to look at PAAR. I believe that it is a final document but there are times that even in these final documents there are errors.On the basis of evidence from the importer, there could be amendment in PAAR. It could happen from an officer taking initiative, it could also happen from an importer taking initiative,”
On his part, the Public Relations Officers of the Tin Can Island Port Command, Chris Osunkwo said PAAR was advisory because importers and their agents had failed to embrace honest declaration.
He observed that officers at the PAAR ruling center only work on facts presented by the importer on his document but noted that not all facts presented by the importers were accurate.
“Practically PAAR is advisory because the officers that are churning out this PAAR rely on the document submitted by the applicant. Destination Inspection is all about seeing and assessing. If for instance, you say you imported techno phones and down here the officer opens the container and sees Samsung phones, has PAAR become advisory or sacrosanct?
“PAAR is meant for integrity driven business climes not for business climes like ours where somebody will tell you he has calculators but when you open the container you find air conditioners, would you say PAAR is sacrosanct, meaning you don’t have to query it?” he queried.
Recall that freight forwarders recently raised concern on the finality of the on PAAR as a document required for customs clearance of goods at the ports wondering if the document had not become an advisory document given the incessant query from the officers at the ruling centre at Abuja.
According to them, given the current trend of incessant querying of PAAR by officers, PAAR cannot be a final document as claimed by the Customs Comptroller General of the NCS, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi, when it was introduced in December 2013.
They argued that since the PAAR document emanates from Customs, it should be a final document as against the Risk Assessment Report (RAR) which was issued and generated by the erstwhile service providers as an advisory document to NCS.
