The Customs Area Controller of the Tincan Island Ports command, Comptroller Musa Baba Abdullahi has decried the level of engagement between the Nigeria Customs Service and the licensed customs agent even as he identified operational gaps between the two which according to him was responsible for misunderstanding between them.
Comptroller Musa who made this observation when he received in audience, the campaign team of Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji who came to pay him a courtesy visit I his office in Lagos however harped on the need for the level of interaction between the two important partners to be strengthened.
He said,” For example, if there is a fiscal policy today by the federal government; you find that there is no platform by which officers and agents will sit down to discuss these policies. I am not saying at the formation of the policy but I am talking of even at the point of implementation. I think there is need for an engagement in that level to a large extent so that these policies are clear. If there are ambiguities at that point, we can request you to do the needful while on our end; we also do what we can do.
“But sometimes, you have policies that will come and from all indications they are not too clear to either of both sides and then implementation becomes an issue, while we are looking at it this way, the other person will be looking at it the other way.
“Yesterday, an agent came to my office and said he had some bulk cargoes coming in and he wants to take delivery fast. I asked him what his problem was and he said he wants to take these things fast because the whole consignments is about 100 trucks and that he wants to take delivery within a maximum of one week and he don’t know how to go about it. I said you have opportunity of 90% delivery and he was surprised that something like this exists and he said that in the last one month he was bothered on this issue. But when I told him 90% is available, as soon as your papers are there, submit your application, pay your duty and you will be granted that platform so that it doesn’t delay your operation.
“So, these are some of the opportunities that are there and people don’t know because of the level of engagement, except for those who are very experienced and very few agents know that you have this opportunity. You have opportunity too, when there is a conflict, you just write bank guarantee indemnity and you take delivery of your consignments without wasting time. All these are opportunities.
“So, I think as soon as we try to improve on the level of our engagement and when you have functions especially knowledge based functions, you invite customs and customs will invite you to their own so that at least, we exchange ideas and I think with that, people like me and you will enjoy the industry very well”.
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