As the Nigerian Customs Service continues consultation on the draft amendments to the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA), the Chairman, Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners in Nigeria, PTML Chapter, Mr. Uchechukwu Aniezechukwu has articulated a list of amendments he wants to see in the new CEMA when it finally becomes law.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen in his Lagos office, Aniezechukwu recalled that the CEMA as it was today, was an outdated document adding that it was no longer in tune with the current realities.
He posited that he would want to see a CEMA that worked in tandem with the provisions of the international trade as operated all over the world even as he wanted a CEMA that streamlined the operations of the valuation unit, that empowered it to raise value for goods to the extent that it could go in the process of calculating values.
“This is because what seems to be operating in the Valuation units of the Nigerian Customs Service is that anybody wakes up one morning and gives whatever value that he wants and I want to see a CEMA that has a database from where the Nigerian Customs can draw from and make their valuation and not google it.
“What we see today is that the country called Nigeria issues her valuation not based on the paper presented by the importers or as it ought to be. The information that is shared between the customs of our nation and the customs of the exporting nation , these are agreements under UNCTAD, that these are ways through which value is raised.
“There are information that should be on the Nigerian valuation database which could be accessed by anybody. So, if you are telling me that the agreed value for 2015 Toyota Land Cruiser is this, I should be able to access that database under the Freedom of Information Act and not that you are guessing”.
“We should be able to set up a CEMA that will tell the Nigeria Customs Service that if we want to advance in our way of doing things, we should move away from using the under table valuation. We should be able to set up a CEMA that says that x,y,z is the operational standard for release and delivery of cargo.
“We should have a situation whereby once a cargo is examined, released and exited, it goes out of the gates and not checkpoints at every point of the Nigerian roads. And most importantly, we should put every machinery in place for implementation of this CEMA”, he stated.
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