The Chairman, Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners of Nigeria, Mr. Uchechukwu Aniezechukwu has blamed the dwindling customs revenue on lack of conducive environment for investors to do their business.
Aniezechukwu who made this observation in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos said that people did not have confidence on the policies of the government notwithstanding the FOREX restriction to some import goods in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) adding that people were not convinced on what the policy thrust of the government was thereby making them cautious with their investment.
He recalled that whereas it took the present government almost half of the year for the 2016 budget to be ready for implementation, no serious minded individual would want to invest his money in such an economy.
According to him,” No serious businessman would want to set up his business where he cannot access fund, no partner will want to enter into an agreement with a local representative who will find it very difficult to repatriate his fund after distribution. No serious manufacturer will want to enter into an agreement with a local distributor who will find it difficult to repatriate his fund after distributing the goods.
“We need to create a conducive environment for investors to operate; we just have to do that”.
He observed that the time it took to clear goods and export goods out of the country was too much adding that no serious minded country all over the world would clear goods from its ports for more than two days.
“Twenty-four hours is recommended by the WTO for goods to exit the ports, but if we could do it for forty-eight hours, we are still on course but if we keeping doing it in seven days, in two weeks in some cases, then there is a problem.
“Even in Cotonou here, they pull out consignment from their borders in one day or two days maximum. Government agencies in the ports are too much. We can create a single window, we can create a single database, the various agencies NAFDAC, SON, Customs, Shipping Lines, Terminal Operators can be on one database. The SSS, the Police, the DMI, they are all government agencies, the few that are not government agencies are licensed by government, they can create an single database to enable me punch my job from my office and in the next one hour, I get my assessment, in the next two hours, I get my debit note, I give an instruction to my bank to pay duty and in the next three hours, my goods are run through in the customs database and if I have all the documents that are required, my goods should be released to me immediately”, he said.
The Igbo Maritime Practitioners’ boss maintained that lack of a functional scanning machine in the customs commands contributed to the dip in revenue collected by the customs saying that since no scanning machine was working, customs officers now recourse to physical examination of consignments which in turn slowed down the process.
“If you book for examination today, they will ask you to drop for examination for tomorrow, by so doing, twenty-four hours is gone and the same officers that happened to run it through the scanning machines will accompany you physically to that place to do your examination. That is one factor that contributes”, he stated.
On way forward to boosting the revenue collectible by the customs, he insisted that the government and the stakeholders should come together under a roof and plan the efficient and effective ways to block loopholes and make all the machineries of government to work efficiently in the sector.
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