Dealings under the radar by ports concessionaires with the connivance of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) officials may have defrauded the country of billions naira, going by the findings of the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation.
The committee, headed by Olugbenga Obadara, discovered that terminal operators deliberately fail to pay dues to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) while NCS looks the other way.
The lawmakers told journalists during an oversight visit to terminals operated by the concessionaires in Apapa, Lagos that cargo tonnage are at variance with financial remittances to the NPA.
“We have been able to establish that what they are remitting is not commensurate with the amount of units of cargo capacity that leave the terminals even though some of the operators have formed it as a habit to always give excuses about bad roads affecting their businesses,” said Obadara.
The findings also showed that there are some terminals where the Customs is too lenient with revenue generation charges, thereby flouting the principles of privatisation, he added.
“As a result of this leniency by the NCS in some terminals as regards revenue charges, other terminals that are duly enforcing the principles of privatisation are losing customers. It is a pity that this actions of sabotage is affecting the full implementation of capital projects by government
“The nation is losing billions of naira in revenue due to these actions of some errant terminal operators. The leniency of the NCS as regards charges in some terminals has also not helped matters because genuine terminal operators are losing customers.
“All this is inimical to the principle of privatisation. Nigeria is losing billions of naira through this and we have to get to the root of the whole matter.”
Obadara explained, however, that he was not able to provide details of errant terminal operators now until the compilation of the committee’s report. “But we need to confirm our findings with Transport Ministry and the NPA before we write our report.”
Terminal operators are hiding under the cover of poor power supply at the ports, dilapidated Apapa access roads, and lack of adequate security at the ports to justify their dishonest tax remissions.
The Managing Director of Greenview Development Nigeria Limited (GDNL), operators of Terminal E, Apapa Port, Abba Bukar, lamented the state of the access roads and the lack of basic facilities.
NCS spokesman, Wale Adeniyi, could not be reached for comment at press time.
