…Says it’s double handling and double payment for importers
As the calls for the immediate deployment of the International Cargo Tracking Note, ICTN heighten, the National Vice President, Air Logistics of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF, Dr. Segun Musa has declared it as an intellectual fraud designed to defraud importers of their hard earned money and add to the cost of doing business in Nigeria.
Musa who made this declaration in a chat with newsmen in his office at Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos, recently, disclosed that with ICTN, cargo would be subjected to Inspection abroad before it comes which according to him, had negated the essence of the Destination Inspection.
Insisting that there’s going to be double inspection with the deployment of ICTN, Musa who is also the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Widescope Group maintained that if the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS gave its backing to ICTN, it would amount to giving up its mandate to foreign inspection.
This, he said was so because if the cargo had been inspected and inspection report issued from offshore, there won’t be any further need for inspection when it arrives the shores of Nigeria.
“Cargo Tracking Note is not an automatic or spiritual thing that will see what is in the container without giving information on inspection. So, some people have inspected, they have seen concealment, they have seen the record and it tarries with what was manifested, and now send it before the arrival of the shipment. That is cargo tracking note.
“So, why must you allow the Importers to pay double cahrges? We are paying CISS and now somebody will be paying for Cargo Tracking Inspection charges again offshore. That will automatically inflate the cost of that commodity.
“If you are looking for concealment, customs will inspect when it arrives here. Why must we inspect before it arrives here? So, Cargo Tracking Note is a document of intellectual fraud designed to defraud importers and worsen the economy.
“So, there’s no reason for anybody except for people who are not knowledgeable who cannot think beyond their immediate observation that will support that fraudulent introduction.”
Recounting his encounter with a former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council about ICTN, he said, “I fought with the former Executive Secretary of the Shippers’ Council when he was advocating and promoting that Cargo Tracking Note when he was in office. I told him I am disappointed he’s promoting fraudulent ideas and if the Cargo Tracking Note handlers know that they are doing something genuine, they should come out to a public debate.
“I remember very vividly when I migrated from the airport to the seaport when I was appointed the Chairman of NAGAFF, Apapa Chapter, I was part of the people that canvassed that we drag them to the National Assembly and we were at the National Assembly under the leadership of Saraki who happened to be the Chairman, Senate Committee On Marine Transport, we dragged them there and there and then, they could not defend it and that was why it was cancelled.
“So, I don’t know what new thing they are promoting or they are telling government that makes the government to take it hook, line and sinker to authorize its deployment.
“There’s no ambiguity in Cargo Tracking Note. It’s just going to tell you what the details of the cargo that you are bringing into the country are. If there’s concealment, short payment of freight, if there’s shortage in value and so on. But the truth of the matter is that all this fears has been integrated into Destination Inspection.
“So, there’s no need for it unless and otherwise the customs will not subject the goods to any further inspection. But if it will still be subjected to any further inspection, then what’s the essence of pre-inspection? So, as far as I am concerned, it’s an intellectual fraud to defraud innocent importers.”
Reminded that ICTN will help improve security in Nigeria by stopping influx of arms and ammunition, he argued that, “We all know that when there’s a concealment of arms and ammunition, or contraband or anything, it’s not going to be stopped offshore. Cargo Tracking Note will not stop it, it will only advice you in your country that there’s this and that concealment in that cargo which you should take note of.
“Unless it’s an indictment on the customs that they cannot do the due diligence on every cargo that comes in. If the customs does not have the capacity or capability to do thorough inspection, then we can go back to pre-shipment inspection where the advice would have come from abroad and there won’t be need for any rigorous examination again.
“So, to me, it’s double handling because it will also be subjected to payment which add up to the cost of importation. The only thing we should be doing is to ensure that we give the tools and the basic knowledge to our customs to do the right thing and do a thorough examination by way of provision of scanners to do thorough scanning so as to see the major contents in those concerned containers.
“But for anybody to have organized a situation where it will be pre-inspected and when it comes to Nigeria, the customs again will still subject it to another inspection, to me, it’s double handling and it’s double payment for our shippers.”
Photo: Dr. Segun Musa, National Vice President, Air Logistics, NAGAFF.
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