US, ISRAEL – IRAN WAR DISRUPTS AIR CARGO, THREATENS CUSTOMS REVENUE DRIVE – OTUNLA
By Success Okezie
Comptroller Godwin Otunla, the Area Controller Murtala Mohammed Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service while speaking with TodayNews recently said the effects of the ongoing war in Iran is being felt worldwide, and no country is immune or isolated from the negative effects of this War. He stated that Nigeria is import dependent, and the effects can be felt right here. “Let me give an example of Qatar Airline which supplies this place with lots of Cargo, and right now the UAE and Dubai and other Airlines from the Gulf region are grounded because no air craft is flying because of the drones and missiles flying in the Air space in the Middle East. So right now some of their Air crafts are on the Tarmac, they cannot fly. On the effect on our revenue collection, this Month I’m sure we will be low, last Month was 17 billion, January was 24 billion, this month, I don’t think we can make 17 billion. We pray the war stops because it is affecting everyone.
Otunla sheds light on the similarities and noticeable differences between the land borders and the Airport, which is also a border area. According to him, the land border and the Airport are borders, using the Ogun 1 Command, Idiroko and the MMAC, he says they are similar in the sense that they both witness entry of goods and services into the country including passengers, and they also exit the country . He says we can notice the Smuggling of both goods and people in the land borders, While it’s a bit different at the airport. At the Air border there’s Smuggling but it’s different, things come in through the Aircrafts , the Aircrafts bring the cargo and the cargoes are all manifested. However, at the land border, things come in also, some of them unmanifested and no matter the vigilance of the Customs, they can slip through and go through any unapproved route but in the Air border, when cargoes come in, they are channelled into the bonded terminals and warehouses where they are processed before release. So in that place the only way people do Smuggling is through concealment. Here every little thing that comes in through air, has an airway bill. No matter how little, it must come with an airway bill. So what they do is bunching, concealing the smaller items inside the bigger ones to avoid paying for all the items. The land border is a very vast area, it is very hard to stamp out Smuggling, even if all customs Officers standing in a circle and hold hands, they will still slip through our hands. It is as hard as that, the borders are very large we can only reduce Smuggling but we can’t eliminate it.
However, at the airport, with thorough checks, although Agents will complain of the rigorous checks but with thorough checks and dedication to duty we can curtail it and reduce it to the barest minimum, so that is the difference.
Otunla disclosed that to curb bunching, Customs at MMAC has introduced layers of checks, for monitoring, “these are our own creation, because they are not in the normal Customs process, but we do all these things, we created some check points, so to say, to check their excesses.
Those are the tools we use to check concealment, the checks are done weekly, those Airway bills ( Bills of lading at the seaport) are in the system, same as the manifests. The unutilized are also still lodged in the system, so as you’re clearing one you track the unutilized to the system because the manifests are electronically transmitted into the system. Periodically we check the system and we take them to the shed operator to find out who and who carried each of the consignments, and track them. Once we catch up with the culprits, we give them what to pay as penalties, or punitive measure. The only disadvantage is that once these goods have gone out already, no matter how much you ask these people to pay, you can never get the real value of the goods which have been taken away. We calculate value through Cost, Insurance and Freight (CIF). FAAN and the Airlines calculate theirs by weight, the Customs calculate value by CIF. No cargo leaves the shores of any country without being insured. Now, getting to the defaulters, the Customs may collect more or less. It’s in two ways, not exact, at times if we find out that a particular agency is recalcitrant, looking at the number of times they have been found wanting, we can slam a huge invoice on that agency to serve as punitive measure. They have to pay, or stop operating, this serves as a detterent.
He commended Comptroller Afeni for the amount of hard work he is putting in at Idiroko, looking at the large amount of seizures he has made, Otunla said it is encouraging that Afeni is making these huge seizures without skirmishes. “It is important to do this job without loss of lives, it is also important to have an understanding and good relationship with our neighbors at Benin Republic, so that they can help from their own side. Everything is not show of force, sometimes you let go and regroup. Dialogue is key at this point and the relationship with other stakeholders has always worked.
