The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has acknowledged the receipt of the draft amendment to the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) as recently distributed to stakeholders for the input by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, the founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam who acknowledged the receipt of the document on behalf of the association said that NAGAFF would make its representations as it reflects the position of the association.
Aniebonam disclosed that the only solution to the many issues relating to customs formalities and documentation lied in the intention of the National Assembly to review the customs law.
According to him,” As long as we have not reviewed customs law and repeal certain sections in that law, we are heading nowhere. There are sections of the customs law that we need to repeal. For instance, in our own part sections 153, 154, 155 and 156, the licensing regulations need to be repealed to give way for CRFFN to operate because there is conflict there especially when you look at section 19(a) and (b) of the CRFFN.
“And so, the solution to all these matter is for the National Assembly to legislate on all of them and the good thing now is that just last week, the customs law has been distributed for inputs to be made. We have collected our own copy band we will make representations. What I have just told you now, we are going to make representations on them”.
He further stated that the association would also be looking at sections 4, 5, and 6 which had to do with the powers of the Board adding that a critical look at the customs law would show that the Minister in consultation with the Comptroller-General of Customs would give direction to the Board which he argued to mean that there was no Board in the customs.
“And that is why the Comptroller-General of Customs has too much powers in moving officers at any level because the Finance Minister is a technocrat, she doesn’t even have time for all that even though she is the Chairman of the Board. So, we also have to look at the powers that have to do with the extent to which the customs can exercise discretion like the issue of exchange rate.
“If you look at section36 with regards to importation, you could see, people are crying that the new exchange rate is an anathema, it is too bad. It is not customs matter, customs does not handle monetary policy and all that. But to the extent that the Honourable Minister of Finance is in-charge of the Central Bank and the customs, so, if you look at the relevant sections of the customs law, you will see that the Minister in consultation with the CG of customs can give direction, how do we calculate customs duty? Cost, Insurance and Freight and they are Dollar denominated, you must convert it to Naira.
“So, we can have these three people sit, the Finance Minister, the CBN Governor and the CG of Customs, take and benchmark exchange rate for the purpose of customs duty only in order to facilitate trade”, he said.
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