The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has saved the country N36.7 billion representing the 1 percent Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) charges on import hitherto paid to service providers since it took over the destination inspection scheme in December last year.
Area Project Manager, Apapa Area Command of NCS, Deputy Comptroller Yusuf Malanta, disclosed this at a one-day workshop on the appraisal of PAAR in Lagos on Wednesday.
Malanta said since the advent of the pre-arrival assessment report (PAAR), the NCS has been fine tuning the process of its issuance to ensure that trade is facilitated.
Part of the effort he said was the working round the clock in three shifts of officers at the PAAR ruling center in Abuja which has led to an average of 1,000 to 1,200 PAAR’s being generated daily.
He explained that with PAAR, the importers know in advance and can predict the duties and taxes payable on their consignments even before examination.
“During the era of the service providers, it is very difficult for an importer after submitting his document to know when the documents will be out. You cannot also determine the duty or amount you are going to pay and what time you will exit your cargo at the port but with PAAR all of that has been eliminated.
“If you are honest in your declaration and submission to your bank, sincerely speaking before you get back to the office from where you are coming from, you will definitely get an alert on your mobile handset or email address that your PAAR has been accepted or rejected unlike before when you don’t have contact with your bank and the service providers can’t talk to them.
You will be stuck between the bank and the service providers and the bank will not accept talking with you, so you see the beauty of PAAR platform,” he said.
He added that the command generated N713.6 billion between January and September 2014 as against N606.7 billion it generated in 2013 before it took over the destination inspection scheme.
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