Multiple declaration on consignments is a challenge to us, Azarema

ALHAJI Abdulkadir Azarema is the Comptroller of Customs in charge of Apapa Area Command
In this interview with CustomsWatch he condemned multiple deceleration of consignment by importers and agents.

Azarema

Azare, who noted that the  disagreement between APMT and agents affected revenue generation, also dismissed the hue and cry against e-payment Azare also spoke on other issues

APMT alleged that the delay in clearing procedure is due to customs 100% physical examination on all consignments.  How true is this?

Clearing procedure has been defined clearly. Importers or the  clearing agent will go to cyber café, make declaration, after which he would  go to bank to pay. And go back to the café after payment.

To trigger the procedure. The ASYCUDA will analyse the declaration  and declare whether it is  green or blue,  for manufacturers who ferry their raw materials without examination.

The system identifies them that are RT members. I have been doing this for importers with credibility who have been consistently complying with the clearance procedure for sometime and the system has recognised them. And in that case their consignment will be figured to green and their goods will be released immediately without examination.

We don’t even have them so much here, we have them in just minimal numbers.There is the yellow laying which is scanning and there is a red laying for physical examination. So  when the consignment is being figured  for whatever action, if it is yellow it will go to scanning, if it is red, it will go to physical examination. So it is the credibility of the importer  will determine where and which laying the goods will take.

like I told you earlier those on green will go without even going for examinations, and without even scanning. Those on yellow and those on red will go for scanning and go for physical examination. We have had report and complaints from Cotecna  that greater percentage of Nigerian importers are not compliant. If you are not compliant, the computer will not pick your declaration to scanning. It would send it to red for physical examination. These are the possible reason why a lot of declaration are going on red for physical examination.

We have heard  report that May revenue went down and we have not actually known the reasons for that.  May be it could be because of  the transferring of containers from this port to any port. What actually is the cause?

The disparity between APM Terminal and clearing agents started in May. Around Mid-May when the agents complained that APM terminal has no adequate cargo handling equipment that is causing delaying in getting the containers processed.

As such they are causing delay to get containers for scanning or for physical examination.  It also adds to the delay encountered when taking them to exit. that is late treatment for seaming or for physical examination or to make room for exit after customs release.

So agents were suffering and they make several complains and  they threatened to embark on strike.
There were less declaration because the agents were busy fighting their case with the APMT terminal. Because of that the Minister of transport had to come from Abuja to address the situation.

He gave instruction that no ship will be allowed to discharge at the cargo at APMT until when they are able to clear the backlog. So some of the ships that came around that time were diverted to Tin Can and KLT..

Those that could not be diverted because of the size of the vessels and because the entire volume of Apapa, Tin Can and TRT were allowed to discharge at APMTL but the content were transferred to lilypound.  That was how the number of containers went down and that affected May revenue of Apapa. Nevertheless, revenue collected was 13.4 billion. But also you will discover that in May three we had days to observe a public holidays, so nobody worked.
The death of our late President Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua affected us.  On Thursday, we observed a public holiday to mourn him, likewise on May 29, which was democracy day fell on Saturday, and was shifted to Monday, so we did not work for three working days.  If we had worked on those three days, our revenue would have hit the 2 billion naira per week bench mark.

What are the measures you have  laid on ground to enhance the revenue in the Apapa Port?
We have employed more controlled measure and efficient process to ensure that there are no underpayment. Those we have discovered have been recovered   promptly and like I told you  earlier a lot of vessels are being transferred to Lilypound.

At a point, I didn’t want allow them to be transferred because it will affect the volume of cargoes of which we are to collect revenue. But headquarters has asked me not to restrict the transfer because we want easy flow of cargo be it Apapa or Lilypound or anywhere. Headquarter is after national revenue not area revenue.

If it is not collected in Apapa, it will be collected in Lilypound or KLT,  So goods are being transferred out of Apapa freely, there is easy flow of containers.

Now, importers are not complaining agents are not complaining, whatever is remaining we are collecting revenue on them promptly and other commands are also collecting and  am glad to tell you that since June, we have collected 14.6 billion naira in Apapa while Liverpool has collected 2.3 billion naira and KLT has collected 2.4 billion naira. So KLT and Liverpool.
So we are monitoring everything and we are collecting promptly.

How many seizures have you made so far and how are you tackling smuggling?
We always use intelligent information from all source, thorough examination, another, skynet is always there to reveal anything concealed. Of recent, we have seized about 7 containers, five of them furniture based on the intelligent information, we were able to intercept them and they were taken to the custom unit.

There was a container the owner said it was household goods but when it was opened for examination it was discovered that about half of the bags in the container were children shirts, shoes bags and all are prohibited items so, the container has been seized.

Then there is another container said to contained motor spare parts, but when it was opened  for examination, in addition to motor spare parts, they were two over-aged vehicles ford and golf 99 and 95.So, all the goods have been seized accordingly.

Containers for the furniture, declaration were not made, we just got the information because when we check on the manifest, we look for the owners, but addresses were there since they have known what they have brought, they will not like to disclose their true addresses. So the container for furniture will not cost less than 5 million. At least, the benchmark is five million and above but we can say fundamentally 25 million for the five containers but it can be more than that.

How are the agents complying with BPI?
The agents are complying. They are very good  in catching up with the procedure they go to the BPI, they make their declaration, assess themselves, they go to the bank and pay  and come to customs for physical examination of their goods. That is when their goods will be released. And when there is discrepancy, we ensure that we give the DN before releasing the goods. So that there is compliance but we cannot say everybody is complaint.

Some of them are not some of them will make declaration, some will assess then they will  abandon it to go and make another declaration for whatever reason I don’t know.

We discovered that one consignment will have more than one declarations but at the end, there will be only one declaration,  It will look like the goods are still in the port while actually they have been taken with  another declaration. So these are the problems we are facing. And we have been enlightening them that they should only make one declaration per consignment they should not do multiple declarations.

Are they facing any challenges constraints in the e-payment?
E-payment is very good, very efficient, very effective, we have not been having problems. Once payment is made, immediately the bank accepts the payment. It shows in ASYCUDA++ computer will see it immediately that  you’ve paid and then, it goes to the CBN immediately there is remittance, so everything is syncronise and it’s working well, there is no problems.