The Customs Area Comptroller (CAC) of the Tincan Island Port Command, Comptroller Musa Baba Abdullahi has said that contrary to the generally held opinion, no benchmark has been set for clearing general cargo at the Tin Can Island Port.
Musa who made this disclosure when the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) led by the Acting National President, Dr. Kayode Farinto paid him a fact finding visit in his office last week however said that what was being termed as benchmarking was the technical application of the risk management tools to some cargoes that were suspicious in value, quantity and classification which ultimately affects the final duty paid.
These cargoes according to him were then subjected to further interrogation and examination/inspection to determine the actual duty to be paid.
Comptroller Musa passionately appealed to members of the trading community to be compliant in their declarations as that was bound to improve the revenue accruing to the nation’s purse as well as guarantee trade facilitation.
He pointed out that part of his initiatives to ease cargo clearance in the command was s the physical establishment of a one-stop shop Centre to resolve the issues of multiple alerts and disputes arising from the terminal during examination even as he disclosed that the Centre named Dispute Resolution Centre (DRC) was housed on the ground floor of the command directly under the office of the Area Comptroller.
The Tincan Island Customs boss noted that command had also initiated a process of cargo movements within the terminals that would be monitored on a large screen mounted at the entrance to the Dispute Resolution Centre (DRC) to be replicated at various points within the command which according to him had officers from all units that may be raising alerts on cargoes, as members.
“The DRC will also incorporate Headquarters System Audit Alert in order to ensure a quick resolution of issues arising from the examination of suspected cargoes. If such issues remain unresolved at the Committee (DRC) level, it is then taken before the CAC. Customs headquarters comes in if the CAC is unable to resolve it”, he explained.
On the involvement of some customs officers in the business of cargo clearing to the extent that some of them even own licenses or sit on the Board of corporate organizations, the CAC emphatically dismissed the claims and challenged anyone with useful information to that effect to make it available to him confidentially for necessary action.
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