By Innocent Orok
To put to an end the controversies and disputes arising from the recent hike in fees of Customs License issued to Clearing Agents and Customs brokers by the regime of Comptroller General Adewale Adeniyi, who is also the Chairman in Council of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), stakeholders has called on the CGC to reveal such fees paid by other countries across the globe.
Recalled that the NCS management recently held a meeting with representatives of Cleaning Agents and Freight forwarders intimidating them of increase in fees for the issuance of their Clearing license from N200, 000 to N4,000,000 for renewal and from N500, 000 to N10,000,000 for new license issuance annually.
In an exclusive chat with Roamrepporters Online, an elder stateman in the Maritime industry and former National President of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Olayinwola Shittu posited that the Customs CGC, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi who also doubles as the “Customs CG of the World” to used his international office status to also disclose to the world and Nigerians how much other countries are paying to either renew or acquire new customs brokers license annually.
Prince Shittu said, ” we want our Customs CGC, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, who is also regarded as the CG of Customs in the World by his status as chairman, Council of World Customs Organisation (WCO) to make available the statistics of fees or taxes paid by other countries for renewal or obtaining of Customs brokers license across the globe yearly. By doing these, practitioners in Nigeria can have an idea or appreciate the recent hike in the license fees”.
Shittu who said it is proper for the CGC to release these figures , also assured that if such is done, it will be a great relief and put to rest the cries and possible legal crises that may arise from the new fees.
Our Google check on some Customs brokers license fees renewal in some countries shows that in the United States of America ( USA) as at November 2024, the annual National permit fee for US Customs Brokers was $180. 57. While in in Canada it is CAD $600. When multipled with the official rate of N1500 per $1, the Customs brokers fees will amount to about N280,000 annually in US and N900, 000 yearly respectively in Canada.
While in the neighboring Benin Republic, our findings reveals that there is nothing like licensing fees by Customs Administration in the country, rather Customs Agents pay taxes to government raging from 500,000 to 600,000cfa annually depending on the volume of work which is about N1.6m in Nigeria money.
The hike in the NCS license fees has generated anxiety and fear with discordance tones among practitioners who are worried that these taxes will increase corruption in the ports even as the Customs is implementing the collection of the 4%FOB Levy .
There is also fear of Agents losing their licenses due to too many fees and charges collected by various government agencies in Nigerian ports.
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