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By Steve Agbota, [email protected] 08033302331
Last week at Onne River Port in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the Minister of Transportation Muazu Jaji Sambo, has expressed worries over the alarming rate of overtime cargoes taking space at the nation’s seaport.
The minister said the Ministry of Transport was perturbed over the issue of overtime cargoes and urged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to do something rabout it at the Port to recover government revenue.
Cargoes are classified as overtime when they have stayed in the port for twenty-eight days without the importer or clearing agent coming up to clear them and take delivery. Under that condition, the law allows Customs to auction such cargoes after 90 days.
But today, investigation revealed that there are over 10,000 overtime cargoes worth billions of naira abandoned by importers and littering everywhere at the nation’s ports.
Some of these cargoes have been in the ports for between seven to 10 years having taken 30 per cent of port space, which invariably congests the various terminals at the ports due to lack of space.
Daily Sun learnt that after the cargoes have stayed more than the statutory period at the port, they are supposed to be automatically move to the government warehouse popularly known as the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal.
However, stakeholders blamed both Customs and the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) for playing mind games by refusing movement of those overtime cargoes at the port to government warehouse even as they also accused Customs and terminal operators of compromise.
Conversely, Daily Sun learnt that some of the reasons why the nation’s ports are flooded with overtime cargoes were that the importers might be having financial difficulties by not being able to get loans from banks to clear their consignments and the inconsistency in government policy on importation.
Founder of National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, said that the implication of overtime cargoes is that they crowd the ports.
He added that the problems was that Customs has not been transferring those cargoes to government warehouses even when the provision of section 31, subsection 1-6 authorised them to do so.
“There was a letter from the Presidency instructing them to move the cargoes. I initiated that letter and there was also a letter from the headquarters instructing Customs to make sure those cargoes are transferred. Most of those cargoes are fall under the statutory period are government cargoes, which supposed to be cleared at the government warehouse and they are not supposed to be under terminal operators.
“What we have now is that the terminal operators are influencing Customs. I think government needs to set up a committee to look at those things clearly. Most of these cargoes in the ports, are three years while some of them are four years and there was a presidential order that those cargoes should be transferred to Ikorodu Government warehouse so that they can go through the normal process and be cleared because you cannot clear them from the port due to huge demurrage and rent. “They are now government cargoes and by the provisions of the law, those cargoes are supposed to be cleared at Customs government warehouse. I think Area Controllers have failed in their duties. After we initiated the letter and a letter that came from headquarters, the containers are still littering the whole ports,” he said.
According to him, most of those containers are there; people cannot take it because they have overstayed and that is why there is a provision in the CEMA, which allows those containers to be cleared under government warehouse, which is not done.
“So the implication is that you have all those containers littering the port, which is going to create congestion and most of the time, the port becomes unattractive and it becomes rent seeking port.
“We have what is called constructive warehouse, if they cannot take them to a bonded warehouse, they can clear those containers at the constructive warehouse because those containers are not own by the terminal operators. They are own by the government under Customs. Under provision of section 79, they are supposed to be cleared. It is only Customs by law that can charge rent. So Customs are to charge rent so that people can clear their cargoes in a peaceful manner,” he said.
He said there is need for minister to set up a committee to clear the overtime cargoes, adding that they don’t need to auction them but should be properly cleared so that revenue will be generated into government coffers.
“If government auctions them, they will only get peanuts. But if you allow them to be go through normal process by paying duty and remove shipping charges, you will discover that a lot of revenue will be accrue into government coffers than auctioning them,” he added.
Also speaking, President of the Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), Otunba Frank Ogunjemite, said overtime cargoes are the cargoes that have been left in the Port without clearance and such cargoes become overtime after 90 days, which supposed to be automatically taking to government warehouse by Customs.
“For instance, if it is in Lagos, all these consignments have to be taking to Ikorodu.
Accumulation of overtime cargoes can actually lead to congestion and they are a lot of factors that make the consignments resulted into overtime cargoes as well. One might be expecting loan somewhere to clear the goods. Maybe the loan was not materialised, which might lead people to leave their consignments at the Port.
“Another thing is that if there is documentation issues on any consignment, it make take over three months and it would now become overtime cargoes. Again, government policy also led to overtime cargoes. Assuming there is a cargo, which you expect to be a zero duty, by the time you get to the port, they now levy you, and by the time you start the process, it can lead to overtime cargo because it stayed beyond the approved time by Customs and when a consignment stays beyond that time, it becomes overtime cargo,” he said. He said no importer or a businessman would deliberately leave their cargo or consignment in the port.
