Following insinuations that Seme Customs Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has taken over proceeds accruing from vehicles at the expense of the RORO ports, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, PTML Customs Area Command, Mr. Steve Okonmah has said that vehicle still for over 80% of the command’s total revenue.
Okonmah who stated this in a chat with Primetime Reporters in Lagos while attesting to the fact that they had lost most of the vehicle importers to the ports of the neighboring countries however blamed the development on government policy.
Reacting to a report that vehicle accounted for 70% of the Seme Customs Command’s total revenue in the month of May, 2016, he said, ” The policy of the government has made it possible for them to run to Cotonou, you know it and by the time they carry it from Cotonou, they come to Seme and when they come to Seme, there is a big difference than when you are coming to the port here. There must be CIF for you but in Seme, there is nothing like that. So, don’t overlook that fact.
“It will be lower there than here because here, we are talking about Cost, Insurance and Freight, there they are not talking anything like that. So, you can’t expect the turnover here to be the same thing there.
“This is a port, the ship brings those things here directly. Those people, the ship takes it directly to Cotonou, that is they imported it to Cotonou, they are only driving it into Nigeria. So, if you talk of Cost, Insurance and Freight in Seme, is there any seaport in Seme there?”
Okonmah likened the scenario to one who went on his own to Cotonou to place and buy a vehicle on his own adding that government as represented by Seme Customs Command was only charging the importers on the value of the vehicle and not necessarily on the premise that what was being brought in was not good since it had been imported elsewhere.
He contended that the person was only driving the vehicle in through the Seme command saying that there was a tax there which is what the person was paying even as he said one cannot compare that with what obtained at the port.
On effort to shore up the revenue of the command, the command spokesman disclosed that the management of PTML/Grimaldi, the terminal operators had taken steps to diversify into containerized cargo adding that it may have been worst if not for the steps taken by the terminal operators.
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