By Roland Ekama
For effective collections of the controversial Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN), the National Association of Freight Forwarders and Consolidators (NAFFAC) has advocated for the Nigeria Customs Service to assist with its single window portal , saying it will bring about seamless process of revenue generation without leakages.
President-General of NAFFAC, Prince Adeyinka Bakare disclosed this in chat with our correspondent on Friday in Lagos.
Adeyinka who frowned at the poorly structured mode of the POF collection, lamented that CRFFN cannot achieve much in the process of collecting such fees from the practitioners except engaging management of the service to help coordinate.
According to him, Customs collect charges and other levies on behalf of some organisations linked to cargo clearance through its portal noting that POF should be streamlined in the same window for effective and efficient collection.
The PG stressed that for such to be achieved, there was the need to review the CRFFN act towards ensuring a more vibrant Council pointing out that CRFFN cannot achieve more to sustain staff welfare talk less of remitting to the government coffer.
He said :”The POF collection is not directly under CRFFN because it has been outsourced to a third party consultant and with that alone, we may not know the actual figures being remitted to government but something needs to be done to correct that anomaly.”
Adeyinka who was a former board member of CRFFN added that “We can collect POF through Customs duty because our focus is on the seaports, airports and land borders and we have the operations of Customs within these areas.
“For example Customs collect VAT for FIRS, ETLS, surcharge etc and as long we operate within the same community I believe CRFFN should engage Customs for the same process.
The NAFFAC boss further decried the activities of some players in the industry frustrating these process from actualisation noting that the single window would have been a seamless process of assisting the council to collect POF.
Adeyinka stated that single window would have encouraged 48 hours cargo clearance from the seaports saying collection of levies, charges etc militate against seamless port operations.
He urged the federal government to streamline the single window platform of the service and Nigerian Ports Authority NPA adding that seamless trade portal will bridge the gap in cargo clearance.
He also urged the government to take a stand and determine which of the agencies should spearhead the single window portal to aid optimisation of cargo clearance and revenue drive of government.
Adeyinka further stated that the operational scope of the council is yet untapped by operators harping on the act establishing CRFFN to be reviewed.
