Persistent breakdown of Customs’ server as well as rising number of unresolved queries on cargo clearing documents are compounding the bottlenecks experienced by importers at ports.
These bottlenecks have continued to worsen delay in cargo clearing, piling up cost for importers, manufacturers and others who do business at the nation’s seaports.
At the Tin-Can Island Port, for instance, importers and their agents have raised alarm on the growing number of uncleared containers. This is due to their inability to process their documents for cargo clearance for the past two weeks as a result of the server failure.
Shippers have also complained of rise in the number of uncleared consignments as a result of constant issuance of queries on cargo-clearing documents by Customs.
“Customs said importers can generate assessment document and capture jobs right from their offices, but we have been finding it very difficult to generate ‘C’ number due to the breakdown of Customs’ server,” said Emma Nwabunwanne, a Lagos-based importer.
“Customs’ server has been fluctuating for the past two weeks. If one cannot generate ‘C’ number, the person cannot print out the assessment document, and he or she cannot clear consignment out of the port,” he said.
The delay in cargo clearance means that the importer cannot take delivery of his consignment and that would accumulate demurrage and storage charges that would be paid by the importer, adding to the cost of doing business at ports, Nwabunwanne said.
“Due to no fault of ours, we pay demurrage and storage charges that sometimes run into hundreds of thousands per cargo. This is also why goods are very expensive in our markets today because the importer or manufacturer, who paid heavily to take delivery of goods or raw materials, must recoup the invested capital,” he said.
But Uche Ejesieme, public relations officer of Tin-Can Island Port Command, said Customs was not responsible for the server failure. He described the server failure as pockets of fluctuations from the work stations which the technical partners have been able to rectify.
“It is Webb Fontaine in partnership with Interswitch that provide the technical services for the Nigerian Customs Integrated System (NICIS II), and we want to believe that these are situations that are beyond human control because it is ICT,” he told BusinessDay on phone.
“As we speak right now, we have not received any complaint of server failure from anybody recently,” Ejesieme said. “Nobody is comfortable when it happens like this because it does not only delay our (Customs) operations but also frustrates stakeholders and impacts on our revenue collection. So, we do not pray for it to happen but it has happened and we regret the inconveniences.”
Jonathan Nicol, president, Shippers Association of Lagos State, said shippers now pay more as demurrage and storage charges due to the Federal Government’s inconsistent import policies.
“Aside from policy, importers are now paying excessive demurrage and storage charges due to delays in cargo clearing. Customs has become uncontrollable and issues unreasonable queries on uncleared consignment, which delays cargo release and enables demurrage to mount,” Nicol on phone.
While blaming corruption as the driver of the delays, he said queries are no longer resolved quickly, and if a shipper wants early resolution of the query, he or she must pay a price or part with money for that to happen.
“It can take an importer about a week or more to resolve a query depending on the query and how quick he or she is willing to part with something. The situation has become unpalatable because by the time Customs releases the goods, the importer would be paying for additional demurrage,” he said.
Nicol said verification of payment of terminal charges in some terminals also takes three days or more, and though some terminals now receive online payment, the importer must go to the terminal for payment verification.
He said both terminal charges and shipping line’s agency fees are also increasing in different codes without meaning, adding that the recent increase in exchange rate for payment of Customs duty by N35, from N326/$ to N361/$, is an example of policy inconsistency that adds to the cost of doing business at ports.
