By Roland Ekama
The Lagos State Wharf Landing Fees Authority has reaffirmed commitment to collect levies from barge operators as part of efforts to boost its revenue drive for the state.
The Authority said talks are ongoing with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to include them in the Debit Note in order to commence fees collection on barges.
Chairman, LSWLFA , Mr. Salvador Adebayo in an exclusive chat said it will also partner with management of the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) in a bid to carry out strict compliance , enforcement and monitoring of the collection.
Adebayo lamented that revenue generation has dropped by 80%since the commencement of barging activities within the Lagos waterways, describing it as leakage that must be blocked.
While emphasising on the lull in revenue collection on the roads, he added that vehicular movement has been shifted to the waterways for onward deliveries and importers of fairly used vehicles and other importation currently patronise waterways transportation.
According to him, Lagos State Government has commenced discussion with the NPA on the need for the inclusion of the collection on barges noting that LSWLFA was established by federal and state laws.
He said “What we are thinking about is just to have a working agreement with LASWA but along the line we discovered that the world is going digital and we felt we should be on the same page with other agencies that are collecting revenue like the customs and others.
So we are approaching NPA again through other means and we thank God that the current MD is ready to assist and if we have that in place , then I don’t think we have any reason to chase the imported fairly used vehicles on the roads.
“All we needed at the moment is for NPA to put us on the debit note and that will solve the problems of digital collection of the fee.
“The leakage we are having is more that 80 percentage. A lot of goods are going by sea through the barges and the ones by road is not even close to 20 percent.
According to him, the local governments authorities in Lagos State are lamenting over the lull in revenue collection along the road noting that despite the $2 collection from imported vehicles, there was the need for upward review of the levies on vehicles.
