The National President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayiwola Shittu has said that there was little or nothing the licensed customs agents could do in relations to the new exchange rate for the calculation of import duty as announced by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Shittu who disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Monday added that it was not just customs agents agitating on behalf of their importers but that one would discover that the regular importers that people dealt with were seldomly organized which made it impossible for them to mount pressure on government.
He observed that on several occasions, they had taken it upon themselves to speak to the senior government officials in the Federal Ministry of Finance only for them (Ministry officials) to dismissed them on the ground that they were not the importers in question.
“But one thing I want to tell you, it is not just customs brokers agitating on behalf of their importers but you discover that the regular importers that the people deal with are not organized and because they are not organized, they cannot put pressure on government.
“But we have the organized sector, we have the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) who are the front runners in pressurizing government because they are manufacturers, they import the raw materials and they are ready to pay at any rate because MAN has not come out in any newspaper to condemn this regime in the foreign exchange and even on the Board of customs, they are there, they are not even reacting and when people like us talk to the senior officials even in the Ministry of Finance, do you know what they tell us? They will ask us are you the importers? If it doesn’t pay the importer, he shouldn’t go and buy. So that folds our hands to an extent”, he said.
The ANLCA boss however absolved the NCS of any wrong doing as he maintained that the decision on the value of Naira and exchange rate was dependent on the monetary policy of the Federal Government adding that since the government devalued the Naira, it was like floating the Naira without picking any amount as it would be struggling with other currencies based on the value of each currency.
“And you remember I said that the value of Naira is the value of our lives. You need to know the value of currency and the monetary policy before anybody can shout. The problem we have about floating the Naira is that by the time you declare your goods and by the time it is cleared, it is like the stock market, the value of shares today might change tomorrow. That is why when you look at their screen or the newspaper, you see that thing just changed, you will be getting losers and gainers. That is the way the Naira is now.
“it is not customs affair, I am not a customs officer, the prevailing exchange rate is what government says they should use and customs role is to enforce government policy which means they are encouraging importers to stop importing so that there will be less pressure on the Dollar.
“So, it is sentimental for people to be saying this, we won’t take this. Are we fighting the federal government? Is withdrawing services which will be seen as part of the economic problem solve the problem? Because monetary policy will not change because somebody is crying”, he pointed out.
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