BY GODFREY BIVBERE

The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has accused stakeholders of altering their import/export business while processing same, resulting in delay in the issuance of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report, PAAR.

Speaking with Vanguard, Deputy Comptroller of Customs in charge of the Customs ICT Rule Centre, Mr. Bashir Yusuf, said that most stakeholders present different documents to officials of the country from where they are importing and to Nigeria Customs.

He said: “The major issue we have now is not about the generation or transmission of PAAR, it is compliance in forwarding good trade information and integrity of whoever or whatever agency is sending it.

“We do not want a situation where people are forwarding information that is not factual while from their country of export, they give factual data, but when it comes to Nigeria, they tamper with the data. This is not helping the system.

“People complain about delayed PAAR. It is, in essence, Pre-Arrival Assessment Report. We have instances where people open form ‘M,’ forward it to Customs for approval. We approve it and grant them authority to continue with their importation.

“They will not communicate anything to the ruling centre until their goods arrive while the normal thing should have been for them to forward their proformer invoice, their final invoice and shipping documents as they get it.”