Customs saves Nigeria N27 billion, off Service Providers’ blunders- Adeniyi
But for painstaking efforts in double checking of importation documents, the Federal Government might have lost over N27 billion to over-sight, made by Service Providers, between January and November, this year.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Image-maker, Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi disclosed this Thursday, during a live Channels television chat, noting that the substitution of the emasculated Risk Assessment Report (RAR), by the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) would no doubt, also boost the security situation of the country.
“We had to check some of their documents for verification; and we were able to generate a further sum of N27 Billion, just from January to November. So, if it has just been only the Service Providers that had done those verification alone, that would have been money lost down the drain”, indicated Adeniyi, stressing that the Government took the decision on PAAR, for a whole lot of good reasons.
“So the issue is, if you are looking at a very stronger means of protecting our boarders, if you are looking at trade facilitation, then you must look at other channels beyond RAR. That was why Government has said that no body can love Nigeria more than Nigerians. And we have Nigerians in Customs, we have Nigerians as stakeholders, we have Nigerians as importers, we have Nigerians as terminal operators. So the challenge the Federal Goverment has given to us is that the country should run the PAAR and get better benefits.
“The PAAR has an added advantage of reducing the time of conducting procedural process. Before, the importers have to commute from Apapa to Victoria Island and back to Apapa or Tin Can Island; and you understand the situation of the transportation in Lagos today. Under the PAAR system and which the Customs is driving, we are capturing PAAR data with electronic systems.
“And we also have an added advantage of having a more vibrant platform. It offers us a stronger platform for collaboration with other relevant agencies; not only with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria(SON) to ensure higher quality assurance but also with other agencies that are involved in import business, which for example includes the Plant Quarantine, NAFDAC etc.
“So, we have a platform through which we can share intelligence with them”, he said, stressing that the ultimate goal is the evolution of a functional Single Window system”, he further said.
Adeniyi explained that with the PAAR, the system is able to make relevant decisions even before the goods arrive, especially in terms of whether “we are going to open it up and count or simply put it up for scanning”.
The image maker maintained that the primary source of information would remain that as provided by the importers; and what would be needed would be merely to adopt established procedures to verify such information and issue PAAR between 24 or 48 hours, stressing that the beauty of PAAR is that it actually relies on the honest and voluntary compliance of the importers’ declaration. He however maintained that the process might sometimes go beyond one day in some cases, because there might be lots of issues that may come into play in the process of arriving at vital decisions.
Pointing out that while the PAAR is a human process, Adeniyi said the aim of the platform is to create a system that would be “corruption- proof”- hence, the Service has painstakingly reduced human contacts, in favour of automation; and added that this was part of the good reason why the Comptroller General of Customs perhaps started with an enviable improvement of the personnel’s welfare packages and salaries, before coming this far.
The high Command Spokesman maintained that PAAR as a regime has been so transparently designed that it should enable the importers to know everything the Customs officers should know, so as to completely eliminate the chances of any ambiguity or extortions and described the Customs Ruling Centre as a “trade portal” through which the Service is trying to put information across to every stakeholder, as everyone could freely go to www.nigeriatrade.org.ng a 24/7 online platform, and enjoy the simplicity of its design.