The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) would hence forth partner on single platform to close loopholes in import duty payment.
The agreement between the two government agencies became necessary in order to checkmate the Temporary Importation Permit (TIP) system in which importers often exploit to avoid levies due to the government.
But, in a statement by the Public Relations of NIMASA, Philip Kyanet, he said the director-general of NIMASA, Dr. Bashir Jamoh, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday, when he visited the comptroller-general of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd).
Nimasa boss said the temporary import permit issue was one of the biggest challenges faced by the maritime sector, stressing that it has denied the Federal Government huge revenue from the practice.
The Custom boss, Col. Ali spoke said, it was important for the NCS and NIMASA to develop a common platform for dealing with problems arising from the TIP.
Jamoh added “The biggest issue we have had to do with temporary importation. What we observed is that people capitalise on the good gesture of government policies.
“Those that are benefiting from this temporary importation bring in their own ship and after one year they will take it back to their country and import back with a different name. They do it constantly and this is to the disadvantage of our Nigerian shipowners,” he said.
Jamoh noted that Cabotage trade, which falls within the core functions of NIMASA, was suffering as a result of the abuse of the temporary import permit, and, “At the end of the day, it is indigenous shipowners that bear the brunt.”
The director-general said the Merchant Shipping Act provided that vessels used in importation should be registered with the Nigeria Ship Registry, but in most cases, the importers did not.
He called for greater synergy between NIMASA and NCS, and indeed, all agencies in the maritime sector, to address pertinent issues and improve the sector.
Jamoh said it was in pursuit of such cooperation that a regular meeting of heads of maritime agencies was recently initiated. The meeting debuted on July 7 in Lagos at the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC).
Those in attendance including executive secretary of NSC, Mr. Hassan Bello; managing director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman; managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu; and rector, Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Commodore Emmanuel Effedua (rtd).
Jamoh said the essence of the meeting was to identify and speedily tackle challenges faced by operators in the sector without the impediments of official bureaucracy. He invited the NCS Comptroller-General to join the heads of maritime agencies meeting.
“After the meeting, we decided to incorporate the Freight Forwarders’ Regulators to be on board,” Jamoh stated, adding, “The MD NPA and I have both agreed to extend the fellowship to you and you have the liberty to join us via zoom.”
Jamoh appreciated the efforts of the NCS under Ali to curb smuggling in the country and enhance revenue generation.
Responding, the comptroller-general of Customs pledged the commitment of the service to pooling resources with NIMASA to address the TIP issue and other problems in the sector. He said there was need for both agencies to design a common framework for tackling the issues.
Ali said such approach would ensure that if Customs registered a ship and gave it a TIP, NIMASA would also have records of that registration on its own platform.
According to him, “We should have more identity of the ship beyond the name, as name can be erased and another name used.’’