Rivers
Customs Boss Warns Against Non-Compliance With Practice Rule
The Customs Area Comptroller (CAC), Area 1, Port Harcourt, Chedi Wada, has warned against non-conformity with statutory procedures in the maritime sector.
Wada gave the warning at a One-Day Sensitization Programme on Satutory Procedure Code organised recently at the Command in Port Harcourt.
According to him, to operate effectively in the maritime industry, as a shipper or clearing agent, one needed the knowledge to enable him flow better in the system.
According to him, previous workshops had paid off, hence the need to regularise it.
He charged the stakeholders not to only learn for themselves, but to take the knowledge home or their respective offices and train others.
Wada reiterated that consequences abound for defaulters who flout the CPC, hence the need to take the seminar seriously.
“The sensitization workshop is to interact and gather feedback. Previous ones paid off. The idea is to know the dos and don’ts of operations at the ports, and consequences for default. So, to avoid revenue loss, time wastages and incurring of costs, the sensitization programme becomes necessary”, he said.
The expectations of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), he explained, was to ensure participants become more informed and knowledgeable in the end.
In his lecture, Chief Superintendent Custom, B.M.Gambo, who took the participants through the Customs Procedure Code (CPC), said it was important that operators in the maritime industry know the basics of the rules and procedures governing the sector.
Gambo noted that the 21st century Nigeria Customs was involved in revenue generation, national security and trade facilitation.
To achieve this, he said it will depend on the actions of the stakeholders, based on their understanding of the Customs Operational Procedures.
He marked some of the abuses of the CPC to include, false declaration of cargoes, underdevaluation, among others.
These infractions, he stressed, “lead to loss of revenue and are punishable by penalties or imprisonment or both in some cases”.
At the question and answer session,the participants aired their views on areas of ambiguities for which the CAC, the lecturer, Gambo, and other officers provided clarifications.
By: King Onunwor