As the argument on whether or not the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) introduced by the Nigeria Customs Service nearly one year ago can be queried since it is a customs document issued by the Customs itself, a former Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Dr. Kayode Farintho has said that PAAR could be queried as well as could not be queried.
Farintho who was speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in his office in Lagos recently stated that PAAR could not be queried on issues relating to value as according to him, anyone who queried PAAR on the ground of value should be treated as a criminal and that such a person should be reported to the authorities for a disciplinary action.
He however observed that PAAR could be queried based on the discrepancies of unit in other words quantity as well as wrong classification.
According to him,” what we argued last month was whether PAAR can be queried and I gave them two positions; PAAR can be queried and PAAR cannot be queried. Anybody querying PAAR on value, that person is a criminal because in the PAAR office, we have a valuation unit that is made up of a crop of professionals issuing out PAAR. So, what are you saying? Are you saying that those officers there don’t know what they are doing? And I know how they do their work, they go to the internet, compare prices, even speak with your supplier because if you are importing anything now, you must put their telephone numbers to confirm the value”.
“But the officers in the field discovered now that, the man that is bringing in this laptop, on his PAAR, he declared 200 hundred laptops but on physical examination, you discover 2000, are you now saying that because PAAR is a final document, he should be ignored and revenue will be lost? PAAR can be queried based on the fact that if somebody did not declare correctly, discrepancies in quantity and you can even query PAAR based on wrong classification of goods but you cannot query PAAR on value”.
Speaking on his assessment of PAAR since it was introduced nearly a year ago, Farintho has this to say,” we don’t need a soothsayer to tell us that PAAR has succeeded because I took my time to go to Abuja, I look at what was collected between January 2013 and August 2013 and I now look at what was collected between December 2013 and July 2014, it was huge”.
“PAAR is working and PAAR is actually assisting the Federal government in generating more revenue. It is now left for the Federal government to look at the industry vis-à-vis creating a level playing ground for various importers that are bringing in consignments, how do we assist them. Government is not even looking in that direction, they are only interested in how much customs will collect whcich customs may collect at the end of the day at the detriment of the importers”.
“We are looking at a situation where we will not drive these importers to the ports of the neighbouring countries. PAAR is a success considering the revenue that has been generated, considering that there initial teething problems when they started which is normal for any document. But now if you open your document, PAAR will be ready within 24 to 48 hours provided that document is uploaded from the banking end”.
