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| Customs boss, Dikko |
An electronic system that is meant to
facilitate easier clearance of cargoes at the nation’s seaports is currently
giving agents headache, Comfort Oseghale writes.
This is not the best of times for Mike Okorie, a
licensed customs agent. The licence of his agency, Chimbudike Nigeria Limited,
was three months ago blocked by the Tincan Customs Command on the excuse that
the company allegedly cleared a consignment and failed to pay the duty
amounting to N16,278,679. Okorie has since been in a dilemma over how to prove
his innocence that his agency was never involved in such a transaction.
Although he had written a petition to the Tincan
Customs Command, attaching documents to show that another agency had done the
clearing, he claims he has yet to get any form of reprieve.
Okorie is not alone; fraudsters are said to have
taken advantage of the loopholes in the Nigeria Customs Direct Trader Input
system to defraud the government.
Introduced about two years ago, the DTI is an
electronic method of lodging customs declarations in Nigeria, using the
Automated System of Customs Data. In the past, agents and importers would lodge
their Customs declarations on the SAD form, which would be assessed by the
Customs staff.
Under the new system, agents and importers must
lodge their declarations using the Customs computer system, and the Customs
officers then make an assessment of the tariffs and duty payable, using the
electronic details.
What would have been an otherwise efficient means
of international trade has now become a means for fraudsters to defraud the
government and other licensed agents. This is because most agents and importers
have no access to the DTI to make their declarations. Instead, they go to DTI
cafes managed by private individuals who then capture the details of their
transactions on the DTI system to generate assessment.
According to sources, all a fraudster intending
to evade duty or under declare his goods has to do is just to mention the name
of any licensed customs agency known to him to the DTI operator. Once the
details of the transactions are sent to the Customs under an agency’s name, the
victim is forced to pay any duty that the fraudster may have evaded or risk
losing his licence.
Okorie said, “Going by the CEMA Act, an agency or
its representative should be notified by the Customs and given 14 days to
report to the command from which the problem originates before the licence is
blocked. But the Customs do not bother themselves with that; they just block
licences as they see fit; it is only when you go to a DTI café and try to
capture your documents that you will realise that your licence has been
suspended; that is what happened to me.
“Because agents do not have access to the DTI,
there is no way to tell if another person or agency is generating a duty
assessment in the name of your agency at another DTI café. In my case, a
consignment of 6 by 20 feet container of aluminium coils was cleared in the
name of my agency by another agency, Sapid Agency; yet, I had no knowledge of
that transaction, only for my licence to be blocked by the Tincan Customs, who
claimed that the consignment was undervalued.
“Now, I have a debt of N16,278,679 to pay for
something I know nothing about. I was able to get the bill of lading, which
showed that the consignment was released to another clearing agency and not
mine. I have submitted all these documents, including my petition to the Tincan
Customs Command.”
Okorie criticised the creation of the Post
Clearance Audit Departments across all Customs Commands in the state,
describing the development as another means of frustrating and extorting
licensed agents.
He said, “It is the Nigeria Customs Service that
handles all aspects of clearing and releasing of cargo; so, why should any
consignment be undervalued or the owner evade paying duty in the first place?
It is their offices that issue the Pre Arrival Assessment Document; it is the
same Customs that examine and inspect cargoes when they arrive at the port.
“It is the same Customs that man the gates
through which consignments exit the ports; so, why should they now block
anybody’s licence and claim that duty has been evaded? Are they not admitting
incompetence? Why must law abiding agents suffer and pay for their
incompetence? The Customs must ensure that the proper value is given to a
consignment before they issue the PAAR, and not issuing PAAR and then coming
back later to penalise innocent people.
“I see no reason why the Customs should release a
consignment to an agent who cannot be identified with his form C-30. They
should also ensure that the release documents are stamped with the agencies’
seal and signed before they take possession of their consignments. That will
help in checking the widespread fraud that is now going on because Custom
agents cannot access the DTI themselves and do their own transactions.”
However, the General Manger Operations of Sapid
Agency, Mr. Francis Itsede, told our correspondent that Okorie’s claim was not
true.
He said, “You can see that we are a responsible
agency; we operate from an office unlike some other agents. We don’t only offer
clearing services, we also own bonded terminals. This situation with Okorie’s
agency arose because the consignment in question came to our inland container
depot at Mile 2.
“An agent must have cleared that consignment at
our terminal; we don’t know who the agent is. Our job is to release the
consignment after the necessary duties have been paid. Okorie wrote a petition
on this matter, we are aware it is being handled by the Tincan Customs
Command.”
Another Customs agent, Emmanuel Uneze, described
the blocking of agents’ licences as a tactic to generate more revenue for the
NCS, alleging that the PCA departments were created at all the terminals for
this particular purpose.
He said, “My licence has been blocked severally
in the last few months; it is becoming an everyday occurrence. They will block
your licence for jobs that have been done in the last two years and claim they
were undervalued; all they are after is money.
“It has become a problem now; we are beginning to
wonder why a post clearance section should be given a target because when you
ask them, they will tell you that they were given some revenue targets to
achieve. The minute you solve one problem of suspension from one Customs
command, another command will block you again. That is what we are all
suffering now.
“The Customs are the ones issuing this PAAR; we
submit all the documents before the landing of our containers; the profoma and
the final invoice before the Customs will tell you what you will pay, which is
the duty. You go ahead to pay this duty only for your consignment to be put on
an alert before it can be examined.”
Uneze added, “When you meet with them, they will
issue a Debit Note on a consignment they gave you value for which you paid. By
the time you take delivery, post clearance auditors will call you on the same
thing.
“They keep questioning the value of goods at
every stage; they should tell us once and for all, what the value should be,
because until you pay the Debit Note, which the Customs have raised, your
licence will not be unblocked.”
He questioned the decision by the NCS not giving
the agents access to the DTI instead allowing private individuals to operate it
on behalf of the agents, adding that it was important for every agent to log
into the DTI with their passwords so as to checkmate the incidence of identity
theft.
Uneze said, “The Customs need to help us the more
because the DTI system has been made open. Anybody can walk into a DTI café,
mention the name of your agency and use it to capture their documents. In some
cases, you will not even know about this until that particular transaction has
a problem with the Customs. It is the agency whose name is used to generate the
assessment that will be in trouble.
“So, some of the transactions you see in your
system, you don’t know who owns it. The Customs should issue every licensed
agent with passwords, so that except you key into the DTI system with my
password, you can’t have access.”
The National President, Association of Licensed
Customs Agents, Mr. Olayiwola Shittu, said the body was aware of the cases of
identity theft among agents and reassured the agents of the reform of the
system, adding that the problem would be a thing of the past in the next one
month.
He said, “The reform is going on now; within the
next one month, all licensed agents will have their passwords and personal
identification numbers to access and do online declaration with the DTI system;
we are working on it very seriously.
“The DTI cybercafés have always been an avenue
for people to perpetuate fraud. They go there and steal Customs password,
release cargo and exit them illegally. By the time all agents have their PIN
tied to their licences, the agents will begin to take responsibility for any
transaction that occurs on their licences. That is what is on now and we are
working vigorously to make sure it comes to fruition.
“We have a number of them who have complained to
us and they are being treated on a case by case basis. For example, there are
people, who without their knowledge, someone used their RC number and exit
cargo, only for them to be confronted by the development when Customs blocked
their licences.
“From the investigation that has been carried out
and where it is noted that those affected were innocent, those licences have
been restored. There is a need for agents in this situation to prove their
innocence and not expect the Customs to just assume it; otherwise, that will be
a loophole for revenue leakage. Meanwhile once the passwords and PINs are
issued, that is the end of the illegal releases.”
The Public Relations Officer, Tincan Customs
Command, Mr. Chris Osunkwo, when contacted, said, “We are handling a case like
that. Ask the agent in question to see me. We are almost through with the case
and his license would soon be unblocked.”
Punch
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