The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has pleaded with President Muhammdu Buhari to suspend the palletization policy which demands that all Nigerian bound cargoes will be palletized, describing it as not in the best interest of the country.
The National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto who made the plea in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos Friday said that the association had written to the President letting him know why the policy was not necessary for the country hence the need for it to be suspended.
Farinto who informed that the importers were now making arrangements to divert their cargoes to the ports of the neighbouring countries following the implementation of the policy pointed out that the policy if allowed to remain was capable of making the country lose about N500 billion.
He maintained that palletization would add to the cost of doing business at the port as importers would now be made to use two containers to carry goods that they hitherto carried with one container as well as paying double in freight charges and the cost of transporting the cargo to the owner’s warehouse from the seaports in Nigeria.
“You can’t do palletization when you have not done the needful, provide scanners in the ports first. You are insisting on palletization which will increase cost of cargo clearance. For example, if this bottle water is being imported in a container, may be it takes one thousand units, the moment you palletize it, it reduces to 600 or 700 pieces per container meaning that you must take two containers to bring in the usual number of bottle water that you used to bring before per container, meaning that you are paying two freight charges, meaning that you are going to use two trucks to take the same thing you used to take before in one truck to the consignee’s warehouse. Is that our problem now?
“Our problem is that government should provide new modern scanning machines that can scan instead of 100% physical examination that we are doing in the port. Are you now saying that with the palletization, that customs is going to cancel 100% physical examination? The answer is no! Why must you bill me so high because I want to bring this thing into your country when I know that I can bring this thing as a commodity in a neighbouring country like Cotonou here?
“Palletization is not our problem; it is least of our problem. By the time we sanitize the industry, by the time we fix a very good benchmark for procedure in the industry, palletization will come in by itself without government imposing it”, he said.
On the assurance given by the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Barr. Hassan Bello that fears raised by the stakeholders on the practicability of the policy were being looked into by the appropriate authority, the ANLCA NPS quipped,” There is nothing like any hope, palletization policy if it is implemented, it is not for Nigerians, it will add to the cost of cargo clearance, we will lose many jobs, we will lose money and we will lose importers.
“We have written to the Commander-in-Chief telling him know about the challenges, letting him know why palletization is not necessary now and what should be done is for government to suspend palletization so that we won’t lose our jobs”.
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Finance in a stakeholders’ meeting held late last year in Lagos on the implementation of 2017 Revised Import and Export Guidelines had announced that all cargo bound for Nigeria would be palletized with effect from January 1, 2018 to check the influx of firearms and other illicit goods in to the country, a development which many stakeholders had since criticized.
Photo: ANLCA NPS, Dr. Kayode Farinto.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
