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BusinessDay’s checks shows that customs officers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) are currently conniving with agents to extort importers by collecting demurrage on already imported goods.
A source at one of the ground handling companies told BusinessDay that they are currently being short-changed with illegal activities of customs officers and agents who exploit importers by collecting over one month cost of demurrage on goods that have been imported and cleared.
The source alleged that agents now have their own ‘secret’ warehouses and after the goods arrive, they clear with the customs officers and hide the goods, while importers keep paying the agents for demurrage, as the goods still remain ‘not cleared’ in the books of customs.
“Importers are currently being squeezed at the airport. Sometimes when their goods arrive, the agents lie to them that the goods are yet to arrive and this will attract daily cost on demurrage. Importers are therefore forced to pay over ten times what they should have paid on demurrage.
“Agents now live larger than the ground handlers themselves and one wonders where the agents get the money they throw around,” the source added.
The situation is compounded by the untold hardship and chaos importers are currently facing with them not being able to clear their goods over what customs identified as ‘systems upgrade.’
These goods include lifesaving drugs of patients waiting to be treated in the hospitals, perishable items, wedding gowns of couples who are about to get married, machineries for harvesting and several other lifesaving equipment.
Last month, a new policy was introduced by customs demanding importers to provide Form M, (a document indicating the value of the shipment from country where the cargoes originated).
Experts say that this will take nothing less than three weeks to one month to arrive and that will only drive importers away from air cargo to other means of transportation, since cargoes can no longer be delivered as fast as it should.
Another source at one of the ground handling companies told BusinessDay that customs is currently migrating from the Automated System for Custom Date (ASSCUDA) to the Nigeria Integrated Custom Information System (NICIS), which requires the importers or agents to provide Form M before their goods will be cleared.
The source disclosed that in a situation where the customs cannot wait for the documentation to arrive in three weeks or more, they will be forced to pay triple the value of shipments they have declared.
However, as at yesterday when this report was written, customs were gradually releasing some of the goods on the condition that the Form M must be provided or the agents pay over double of what they have declared.
“I have waited for over two weeks for my Form M documents to arrive but it hasn’t arrived yet. I can no longer wait for the arrival as I have to clear my goods today. So, I had to cough out triple what I declared on my goods, just to get them out today. The situation is terrible for us and we hope the government can intervene,” an importer who identified himself as Chucks told BusinessDay.
Ephraim Haruna, the spokesman of Customs told BusinessDay that it was not possible for customs to connive with agents to collect illegal demurrage, as demurrages are only collected by ground handlers.
