CUSTOMS BOSS PREACHES EXPORT, CONDEMNS HIGH IMPORTATION OF ACCIDENTED VEHICLES AT PTML TERMINAL
The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi has lamented the influx of accidented vehicles which according to him has dominated Nigerian Ports.
The Customs CG while addressing clearing agents at the PTML Terminal in Lagos on Friday also charged them to focus more on export, in order to generate foreign exchange.
Speaking, Adeniyi observed that “The PTML Terminal is practically, the vehicles that are there are also not the same type of vehicles we used to see in those days, most of the vehicles that I saw here are accidented vehicles, and there are so many implications for this.
“For us, it is paining us because we are not going to get the revenue that we need, our revenue this year is N3.6trillion, we cannot achieve this with what we are seeing here, and the situation here is not different from other places”
While address the concerns raised by the clearing agents who were carrying placards to demonstrate increment in cost of cargo clearance, the customs boss said the floating exchange rate is the major cause and that it is not the fault of Customs.
Nothing has changed in the Customs duty, it is the exchange rate that is changing, the last time I checked, Customs does not manufacture dollars, President Tinubu does not manufacture dollars, what would bring dollars for us is a collective action of all of us
“For us to reverse the trend that we are having, which is the overwhelming reliance on importation alone, we need to devote our energy to export so that we can earn foreign exchange for the country. This is what would bring food to our table, help our economy and increase the value of the Naira.
If nothing has changed, we are still going to be in the same situation. The economy is not doing enough to bring in dollars so that the value of the Naira would improve.
“It is a very simple concept and philosophy of international trade. Let trade be more involving, we must not only be bringing in, we must also learn to export to the rest of the world” he said
Adeniyi also hinted journalists that the Service has initiated a process for the removal and transfer of overtime cargoes away from the ports.
