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By Steve Agbota
Nigerian shipowners have flayed the new $2,000 charge imposed by the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for Coastal Vessel Licence (CVL) in the nation’s maritime industry.
The ship owners unanimously described the new levy as multiple taxation, which could hamper the development of the nation’s shipping sector.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting in Lagos on Monday, a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Temisan Omatseye, said that the $2,000 levy, is a newly-introduced charge collected by NMDPRA from ship owners; while another separate N2 million is equally levied on ship owners by the oil regulatory agency.
However, Omatseye described the development as an abnormally, alleging that the NMDPRA has been encroaching into the regulatory functions of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) by licensing tanker operators in the country.
According to him, the responsibility of oil regulatory agencies should be focused on the petroleum products conveyed by the tankers and not the vessels, adding that NMDPRA insisting on two licenses, which should be outside the scope of their regulation, was wrong.
“Each ship owner pays $2,000 to register with NMDPRA and they are equally asking now another N2 million from ship owners. These are for Coastal Vessels License and they even issued a regulation in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to give them that power.
“Nonetheless, there are international provisions governing these activities and they are vested in NIMASA as Nigeria’s maritime regulator. The major conventions include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), among others enforced by NIMASA. The ministry should ensure that NIMASA implements these international conventions already domesticated,” he explained.
He said that that is happening is that the ministry of Marine and Blue Economy has to take up a very strong role right now because most of the conventions that are supposed to be domiciled in NIMASA are being taking over by other agencies.
He said the ministry has to look into the issue by addressing it holistically and engage the other agencies and let them know the conventions that are domiciled in NIMASA.
