Harboursandport.com: Lagos - Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and the Nigerian
Shippers Council, NSC have called for
on-the-spot auctioning of overtime cargoes taking up cargo handling space at the ports.
Speaking
on the issue of auction recently in Lagos, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian
Shippers Council, NSC, Hassan Bello, said that the Council has already
recommended to the government that on-the-spot auctioning of overtime cargoes been
done at the port.
According
to Bello, “We have also proposed that overtime cargoes should be auctioned on
the spot, if this is not done; it will reach a stage where the port
community, nobody is compliant, including the shippers because shippers will
import something and they will not want to pay.”
Similarly,
Managing Director of the NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, while speaking in Lagos said after a meeting with the Comptroller General of
Customs, CGC, Col. Hameed Ali, late last year, the need for on-the-spot
auctioning of overtime cargoes was discussed.
She
said, “We held discussion with Comptroller General of
Customs; in fact, we invited him over for a meeting with all the terminal
operators at the end of last year. We discussed the issue of auctioning
over-time cargo.
“We at NPA are seeking for on-the-spot auctioning of cargo.
Instead of moving the cargo from the terminal where they are to the government
warehouse, why don’t you just auction it now on the sport there and after that
any cargo that has not been
auctioned, then you can move them.
“It is the same government that will bear
the cost of moving 3,000 containers to Ikorodu, that same government will now
sell those cargoes. So why do you want to spend money to move it; why not just
sell it at the sport.
“We have talked to the Customs trying to
convince them that that is the right thing to do, they have insisted that
certain cargoes they need to this and that but for me, I think we are one
government and we should try to minimise our exposure or expenditure while
achieving the overall objective of port decongestion.
“For example, if you spend N200 million in
moving those cargoes, it is the government that has spent it. Then you now make
N200 million through the sell, in and out you have not really made anything.
“But if you auction these cargoes for maybe at
N200 million and a certain quantity of cargo is left for you to move, then you
only incur maybe N20 million for moving the remaining cargo, so you have
financial benefit in that while saving time and achieving the overall objective,”
she noted.
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