Customs PAAR Regime saves Nigeria over N37bn in one year says Edike

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The Comptroller General of Customs, Dr. Dikko Abdullahi

From Benjamin a Ameh, Lagos

PAAR takes a maximum of six hours to issue, unlike the several days that the RAR (Risks Assessment Reports) to obtain said the Customs Area Controller, Apapa Area, Charles Edike on Wednesday while pointed out that the introduction of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Reports (PAAR), was seriously affecting the capacity of unscrupulous importers or their agents to escape paying Government realistic Customs duty.

Edike made this known while delivering a paper on PAAR, at the inauguration of the newly elected executive members of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) at the Rockview Hotel, Apapa, Lagos.

The Apapa Customs command boss who also identified compliance and poorly functioning technology as the current major challenges of PAAR, equally taunted those making dishonest declarations to think twice, stressing that with PAAR, Customs was now at par, with their sharp practices.

“I can, to a very large extent, indicate whether or not you are lying, once I come in contact with your documents. And so, are all the other experienced officers”, he said, describing PAAR as a home grown device, evolved to remove bottlenecks in the ports, while boosting Government revenues.

“It has helped immensely in the fight against smuggling, because it enables the Service to keep a vigilant eye, on every container and its location adding that the introduction of the platform has increased Customs revenue by 23.4 percent; while the endorsement of the Customs to perform the task had also, in addition, the process help saved whopping sum of N36.94 billion, within only one year for the government that would have been paid as Comprehensive Inspection Scheme.

Edike highlighted that the success of PAAR regime had enabled the World Customs Organization (WCO), to commend Nigeria’s ingenuity as a regional power, prompting several African countries, including the South Africa to come on closer study.

He lauded the doggedness and un-spared commitment of the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Dr. Dikko Abdullahi to the platform, noting that when it was first confronted by severe teething problems, most officers had given up, with some even suggesting its abrogation, but for the CGC’s unwavering determination which saved it.

He therefore charged importers and agents to imbibe the spirit of equity, fairness and honesty, stressing that those who must come to equity, must do so with clean hands.

Meanwhile, the new MARAN, President, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Obi has assured industry operators of objectivity of coverage, saying that her administration would emphasize journalistic ethics, to the letter.

She uses the opportunity to enjoin the Government to rehabilitates of all port’s access roads, especially the Tin Can Island Ports areas, through a better collaboration between the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Federal Ministry of Transport including the Federal Ministry of Works.


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