- Importers’ push for Customs to publish its imported vehicle tariffs, among others, is the right track to follow
The Nation on May 1 published a story, in which players in the vehicle-importing market challenged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to publish its list of comprehensive charges, to eradicate alleged current imposition of arbitrary charges.
The point, of course, is not that NCS does not have a comprehensive list of tariffs. It has. Or it should. But when such a list becomes a secret document only a select few can access and interpret as they deem, it becomes a big problem for a modern economy, which thrives on openness and transparency.
That would appear the reason behind the call by the importers, particularly of second-hand vehicles called Tokunbo cars, on the appropriate authorities to make public their tariffs on Tokunbo vehicles. The tariffs, the players allege, depend on the ports where you are clearing the cargo — the Apapa ports complex or its Tin Can Island younger sibling, even if both ports are in Lagos.
If tariffs differ that much within Lagos, what would the situation be in Port Harcourt, Warri, Calabar and other ports? Does it then mean about everything is open to the discretion of the official on the ground? If that is so, such could create a very fertile ground for corruption.
That is the last this Buhari administration wants; and fighting corruption is what it has staked about everything. For that, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in concert with NCS and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) must closely collaborate to fix the problem.
Which is why this suggestion makes eminent sense: that both the NPA and NIMASA should display their comprehensive tariffs on their website portals, for easy accessibility to their trading publics, at the punch of a computer button.
Since the problem affects mostly Tokunbo cars (and not new ones due to different dates of vehicle manufacture), NCS too should evolve robust and transparent parameters, from which anyone could work out the due tariff in no time. Not only that: NCS should also make these comprehensive tariffs available on its web portals, as well as publish them in popular newspapers, at least for the sake of its “analogue” players, in the second-hand vehicle market.
But the problem, it would appear, is not an inability to arrive at such parameters — NCS should already have some schema or formula or rate permutation. The big problem, it would appear, is the so-called “Nigerian factor”, a euphemism for willful corruption, in which individuals often turn the spigot of public revenue into own private wallets.
That has been the bane of the economy for too long. The NCS Comptroller-General (CCG), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), should therefore see it as a personal challenge to, once and for all, fix this problem.
In fixing it, however, we are not asking the CCG to morph into some Leviathan, ruthlessly rolling over everyone. Everyone knows Ali’s no-nonsense disposition. Even many more know his proverbial aversion for corruption. To be fair, he has made a good impact on NCS, which hitherto had a frightening public perception of thick sleaze. Ali’s arrival has put some dent on that, given how NCS revenues have jumped exponentially since he took charge. That is to be commended.
Still, it would appear there is much more to do. Whereas revenue has gushed in, much more appears still leaking. That is why we demand NCS systemic checks and balances, in which technology would play a crucial role, to birth a new age of openness and transparency.
For instance, with the smart deployment of IT, parameters for calculating rates could be routinised to the last kobo. What is more? Importers themselves, based on these rate formulae, can work out their tariffs and credit the requisite NCS accounts without even interfacing with any official.
Such digitalised operations come with many advantages. For starters, even before your cargo leaves its base, everyone knows the charges and can do the needful. Since such a process maximises online transactions, the ports precincts would be freer of crawling clients and agents, the hallmark of the manual clearing of cargo. Even more: there would be less agent-NCS official interface, which tends to stress “discretion” and fuel corruption, with both parties fleecing the common wealth.
Besides, there is the all-important matter of de-marketing Nigerian ports, in favour of ports in the neighbouring countries of Benin and Togo. Though a good chunk of cargo gets diverted to these ports, most of them often end up in Nigeria. Indeed, that Nigerian ports are so shambolic is why the diversion in the first instance. That results in humongous loss of revenue, year-in, year-out.
For the good of the economy, all these should stop or at least, to start with, be greatly reduced. Open and transparent tariffs could help to make that good change a reality.
For Col. Ali, this is legacy beckoning. The CCG has achieved much by personal daring and example. Now is the time to institutionalise digital transparency in NCS operations. It is as good a legacy as any to further consolidate on current port reforms.
