‘Be Careful With Presidential Port Tax Reform Bill’- ANLCA Boss Tells NASS

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji has voiced the group’s opposition to the ongoing public hearing and debate on the proposed presidential tax reform bill as it relates to the collection of Import Duty and charges, saying the proposal is ill- informed and capable of reversing economic gains achieved in the past two decades.

In an exclusive media chat with our reporter, Nwokeoji tasked the two chambers of the National Assembly (NASS), the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives to prioritize national interest and economic stability over and above narrow considerations in treating the controversial Tax Reform Bills presented to it by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The ANLCA leader described the proposed bill which seek to rework the legislative instrument that transfer the collection of Customs Duty under the purview of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as yet another barefaced attempt to undermine the national economic system stability, create unwarranted chaos and throw ordinary Nigerians into another regime of elitist exploitation that will take the country backwards, many years.

Asked what was new in his appraisal of the freight industry,  Nwokeoji listed the Tax Reform Bill as a major concern, as he said the intentions are far from germane and sincere.

He noted that whereas the idea is not new, those presently behind the proposition are part of a syndicate that specialize in stealing juicy state economic functions through subterfuge and propaganda; often achieved through the back door; using those at the corridors of power as front to legitimize their plot.

His words: “Nothing is happening apart from the normal industry issues except the tax reform bill, you know, which is currently being debated; that Import Duty collection should be transferred to the Federal Inland Revenue Service. It is an executive bill by the presidency that proposes to remove import duty collection from the Customs Service, and we are saying that it is wrong and out of tune with Customs practice, world over.”

He argued that customs duty collection is a specialized undertaking with well laid out processes and procedures and not something like a local government tax permit that can be contracted to anybody that comes along.

“Customs duty is not like the collection of communal or company taxes. Customs Duty involves a whole lot of things: goods classification, valuation, essential character, country of origin and much more. It involves a whole lot of training for you to come up unlike other types of taxation you can just pull the account statement of a company and start working out the lodgments, and they can come and start explaining this lodgment came from our account B to account A.

“Processes and procedures must be respected, a nation’s economy shouldn’t be driven by just any one that saunters along, you can do that with local government market stores permit. But the major area we are looking at is that we don’t want the transferring of the collection of customs duty to Federal Inland Revenue Service. It is a misnomer and would cause unnecessary disruptions and conflict in the port system.”

He said if the bill is passed, it would create a major disruption in trade flow and further put ANLCA members and other practitioners in a tight corner.

“I speak as president of ANLCA and a freight forwarder with many years of experience. This port tax bill is not well informed. The chunk of revenue generated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service comes through the Customs. Meanwhile there is no single FIRS staff sitting with the Customs and I’ve not heard that there was dispute in account and reconciliation, because everything is in the system. As  a declaration is made, if it is vat-able, the system will input it automatically through the Central Bank directing the payments to Import Duty account, FIRS, Port Development which is 7%, and in that order. If you get to ICT office in Customs, as I’m making a declaration, you will see it drop… the system will change automatically to reflect the transaction; it is real time. That is where ALERT comes from, it a central portal and it is real time.”

Nwokeoji also argued that the attempt to rework customs duty collection is clearly at variance with the Nigerian Custom Service Act 2023.

“This is a specialized task in revenue collection.”

He explained that although ANLCA has made its position known to the Senate and House of Representatives; the public hearing has failed to provide a properly coordinated stakeholders engagement.

On the composition of the public hearing, he listed the committees on customs and finance; noting that whereas ANLCA is not opposed totally to the Tax Reform Bill as submitted by the President, but its area of objection he says is the attempt to tamper with the constitutional role of Import Duty collection; which he says is the preserve of the Nigeria Customs Service through the Act of parliament.

He said Nigerians especially those in the struggling bracket will bear the brunt of the policy change if the presidency pushes ahead with it and it gets legislative approval by NASS.

“Sadly in this part of the world, we can’t fight government; those era are gone.  customs administrations world over have a common purpose and task, which is the reason government invests heavily in their establishment and the training of its personnel.

He advocated for a broad based stakeholders involvement to talk President Tinubu out of the plan to re-assign Customs Duty collection.

“So part of what should be done is that, as we are talking, agitating, dialoguing and making the government to see reasons (to reconsider its plan) the general public, manufacturing associations and all the stakeholders, we are all stakeholders…even consumers, to come up and insist for the discontinuation of the plan to remove duty collection from the customs service.

“Meanwhile, you have trained these people, having invested so much in training them, is government saying it would push further to scrap customs as an unwanted agency. Of what use would the customs service be if its primary, universal function is reassigned or outsourced? We must learn to prioritize on saving; there is too much wastages in this country.”

Also speaking on the matter, ANLCA Woman leader, Barr Ada Akpunonu agree that whereas the present plot is a re-hatch of past attempt, she argued that the entire plan is how to capture the control of the economy by a few individuals.

“You know they have been on it…it is not proper. We know what is happening in this country, it is the same group of people with entrenched interests recycling around to capture control of the economy. We know them because apart from oil, the next highest revenue generating agency of the government is the customs service. So it’s a matter of interest and once they make up their mind, there is nothing we can do about it.

“But this is a very terrible situation that we are in. We have a customs service, why have the customs work force, why do we train them? Why do you empower them? So what will they be doing after you take away their core function? This sort of thing is not done, elsewhere.”

She feared that given the prevailing endemic narrow mindedness and selfishness within the socio-economic subgroups, the bill which ordinarily can be resisted may get passed, but at high cost.

“Maybe the only solution is if people can come together…importers, manufacturers, freight forwarders, clearing agents, and other port users to say no. If people can come together and stand firm, I don’t think the bill will succeed. In this country we are so docile, whatever happens, we just sit down and that is our problem.

“One person cannot fight this…this is not a cause ANLCA alone can fight. It is always alone even in the freight forwarding community, you know, you will not hear anything from any other group, but the moment we put out our position, they will jump out, and most time, take the opposite position and align with the government.

“So that’s the problem we’re having. And the worst is that it affects everybody, including those that think that they are tackling ANLCA. It affects them, because their brothers, their sisters, their relations will still be part of the suffering. So this issue has been on, the issue is matter of interest, who will be there, who will not be there amongst our political elites. So that’s the situation. It’s unfortunate and we know what that pretends for everybody with this terrible, fragile economy.”

She also pleaded helpless on what Nigerians can do to checkmate the elites repeated quest to steal the control of juicy, functional economic system.

“It’s for the masses to wake up and challenge those systems that impoverish them and stop been docile. They tried it before with PIDA (Professional Import Duty Administrator), where they sit with customs officials in the name of supervising revenue operations. But what happened, this will be a failure as well, every narrow minded policy they have thrown up have a way of dying a natural death, although not at all times.”