BY GODFREY BIVBERE

NATIONAL Secretary of the National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), has said that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) put in place by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to replace the Risk Assessment Report (RAR), has failed.

Speaking with Vanguard on the state of PAAR after five weeks after its implementation, the Council’s National Secretary, Uchu Block, said that the issuance of PAAR now takes between two and to three weeks contrary to claims by the Customs authorities that it will only take about six hours after clearance documents has been filed in.

The NCMDLCA scribe explained that Customs has resorted to giving “Pre-release” to importers and their agents whose PAAR issuance is delayed.

According to him, “You look at the value of your “Form M” and invoice; nobody has the right to query you because the PAAR will eventually come out. It is either you have over paid or you pay the correct value and for those who have under paid will be asked to come and they pay because what Customs gives them is Pre-release.

“That is the danger in Pre-release. Most people are jumping on it. Most of us who know what it is refused to but when a customer who applied for PAAR could not get it two weeks after, he forced me to get his goods out on Pre-release.

“All these things are what we are facing.Most of us because of our privileged position put in our letter (application for Pre-release) and it takes three days.

“One week after submitting letter to permit you for Pre-release, the letters are missing and there is confusion all over the place. So that is it and somebody is somewhere telling you that PAAR has succeeded, PAAR has increased their revenue.

“When the Comptroller General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi, came (to Lagos the last time), he said they have issued the first PAAR in 58 minutes, now what is the position? Some importers cannot get their PAAR a month after the put in their paper, customs was not ready.

The complain now is that they took over scanners that are dead and these are the same scanners that Service Providers were using while they were there. As government agents did they report to government that all these scanners are dead and are hampering the work?”

Continuing, the NCMDLCA scribe said that he had advised that the Customs programme should run alongside the service providers so that all lapses could be sorted out before the handover but  the advise was ignored.

Block said, “Why did they not report to the Finance Ministry to get these things ready before the take off? t I wrote them a letter that they should let their programme run together so that by the time these people will eventually go it will become a smooth take off. They would wait until the eleventh hour they want to push these people away so that they can take over.

“Knowing fully well that these people would have sabotaged the machines even if they were in good working condition before now, as they weere leaving, they were not happy to leave they would have sabotaged the machines.

Now the CG is telling us that he has ordered for 50 scanning machines. Where is he going to get the money from, is he working for himself or has he applied to the supervising Ministry to get these scanners? You see they were not prepared for it, the PAAR has failed. It is dead on arrival.”

NATIONAL Secre
tary of the National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), has said that the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) put in place by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to replace the Risk Assessment Report (RAR), has failed.
Speaking with Vanguard on the state of PAAR after five weeks after its implementation, the Council’s National Secretary, Uchu Block, said that the issuance of PAAR now takes between two and to three weeks contrary to claims by the Customs authorities that it will only take about six hours after clearance documents has been filed in.
The NCMDLCA scribe explained that Customs has resorted to giving “Pre-release” to importers and their agents whose PAAR issuance is delayed.
According to him, “You look at the value of your “Form M” and invoice; nobody has the right to query you because the PAAR will eventually come out. It is either you have over paid or you pay the correct value and for those who have under paid will be asked to come and they pay because what Customs gives them is Pre-release.
“That is the danger in Pre-release. Most people are jumping on it. Most of us who know what it is refused to but when a customer who applied for PAAR could not get it two weeks after, he forced me to get his goods out on Pre-release.
“All these things are what we are facing.Most of us because of our privileged position put in our letter (application for Pre-release) and it takes three days.
“One week after submitting letter to permit you for Pre-release, the letters are missing and there is confusion all over the place. So that is it and somebody is somewhere telling you that PAAR has succeeded, PAAR has increased their revenue.
“When the Comptroller General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi, came (to Lagos the last time), he said they have issued the first PAAR in 58 minutes, now what is the position? Some importers cannot get their PAAR a month after the put in their paper, customs was not ready. The complain now is that they took over scanners that are dead and these are the same scanners that Service Providers were using while they were there. As government agents did they report to government that all these scanners are dead and are hampering the work?”
Continuing, the NCMDLCA scribe said that he had advised that the Customs programme should run alongside the service providers so that all lapses could be sorted out before the handover but  the advise was ignored.
Block said, “Why did they not report to the Finance Ministry to get these things ready before the take off? t I wrote them a letter that they should let their programme run together so that by the time these people will eventually go it will become a smooth take off. They would wait until the eleventh hour they want to push these people away so that they can take over.
“Knowing fully well that these people would have sabotaged the machines even if they were in good working condition before now, as they weere leaving, they were not happy to leave they would have sabotaged the machines.
Now the CG is telling us that he has ordered for 50 scanning machines. Where is he going to get the money from, is he working for himself or has he applied to the supervising Ministry to get these scanners? You see they were not prepared for it, the PAAR has failed. It is dead on arrival.”