ANLCA Inaugurates Compliance Team, Swears In Officers

The National President, Association of National Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Hon. Iju Tony Nwabunike, has officially inaugurated a Compliance Team  to tackle the excesses of port agencies and stakeholders that inhibit smooth cargo clearance at the nation’s ports.
Nwabunike, who made this known recently while flagging off the team in Lagos, expressed regret that 30 per cent of the revenue generated by the NCS was through non-compliance.
He enumerated such non-compliance as under-declaration of goods, under-valuation, false declaration, deliberate application of wrong Harmonized System (HS) Code, all in a bid to evade accurate duty payment and outright smuggling.
According to him, all these malpractices had given rise to seizure of goods and arrests of perpetrators.
Consequently, he he said, to stem these vices, Customs would resort to several interventionist methods such as the issuance of Demand Notices (DN), among others, to recover lost revenue.
He therefore charged the newly inaugurated Alhaji Lamin Aliyu-led Compliance Team to spare no efforts in ensuring that these evil practices, militating against trade, were checkmated on all sides: importers, agents and government.
The pioneer Chairman, Governing Board, Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN), however, took a swipe at the Customs for violating the principles of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), which aims at promoting international trade by eliminating barriers.
He accused the agency of impeding trade by its establishment of sub-groups such as the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Strike Force, amd Customs Police, which he accused of chasing about released goods on the highway.
In his acceptance speech, Alhaji Aliyu thanked the President for finding him worthy to lead the team and vowed to stamp out non-conformity in the system, and ensure that agents and stakeholders complied wiith trade laws and regulations.

By: Nkpemenyie Mcdominic, Lagos