The seaport economic regulator, Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has described the current campaign against the Cargo Tracking Note (CTN), an advanced import declaration system, as unpatriotic to the nation.
The ports regulator said that despite the economic and security benefits of the CTN, some people and organisations have been spreading false information on the scheme.
The NSC continues to face resistance in its bid to re-introduce the CTN which enables government agencies at the port to have advance and exact information about cargoes coming into the port.
The CTN is expected to curb deliberate wrong declaration and under-declaration of imports which leads to loss of government revenue as well as checks importation of banned goods. However, importers associations such as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and some port users have come against the implementation of the CTN for fear of adding cost of importation.
The NSC has, however, repeatedly maintained that it would not add to cost. The executive secretary of the NSC, Mr Hassan Bello, emphatically stated that the administrative cost of the CTN is to be paid by the shipping lines which, he said, had for long inputted the cost in the bills they give to consignees in Nigeria.
“They have been billing Nigerians for it, and they do not want to let go; they have been hiding such costs on the final bills given to Nigerian importers. Whether the Shippers’ Council introduces the cargo tracking note or not, shipping companies will continue to collect this taxation, the $25 per container and all the other listings are expected to come from the already existing freight taxation collected by the shipping lines on Nigerian freights,” he explained.
The council’s director of Commercial Shipping Services, Mrs Dabney Shall-Holma, also said that the charges as published by some manufacturers as additional cost on imports and exports have nothing to do with the shippers or importers but shipping lines. According to her, it was wrong to say that the CTN will attract additional cost to shippers that are importing or exporting goods at the moment, adding that rather, “the CTN comes from payments that are already payable per consignment.”
She further explained that “the charges as published was a notice to guide shipping companies, lines and agencies in their preparation of their Movement Reference Number (MRN) which is the document they are supposed to prepare after the Entry Summary Number (ENS) has been filled in by the shipper. The ENS is completed by the shipper and it is at no cost, which means that the shipper does not pay anything. However, the intendment of the cargo tracking note right from when it was established in 1998 in Libreville, Gabon, was to get the major components that make up freight as well as surcharges to the West and Central African sub-region. You will notice that there is a huge outflow of trade from the sub-region on account of freight; it is not in the basic freight but in-freight additions, in-the-bunker adjustment factor, currency adjustment factor that is never altered, and in the various surcharges, whether they are war risk or freight taxation or emergency recovery surcharges.
So there are so many surcharges. And it is this retinue of charges that we have said that for those of them that are freight tax, these payments can come from there because there is already a taxation that is undefined. It has nothing to do with additional cost. So the CTN has nothing to do with the shipper that is importing or exporting at the moment. Rather it comes from payments that are already payable per consignment.”
According to her, whether the NSC introduces the CTN or not, shipping companies will continue to collect these freight taxations.
“The $25 per container and indeed all the other fees listed are expected to come from the already existing taxation on Nigerian freights and the major outcome of the cargo tracking note is one: it must give us the important component of freight cost so that subsequently we can even address where there are wastages in the system. It must also identify choices available to shippers. For instance, if a user of shipping services is insisting on a particular surcharge and that surcharge has no benefit to the economy, and has no relevance to the trade, we can get him to drop that surcharge or get the user of shipping services to go elsewhere.
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