Freight forwarding practitioners and Customs brokerage agents under the aegis of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, and National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, have faulted Federal Government’s plans to compel they pay Practitioners Operating Fee, POF.
The government planned to rake in a minimum of N2.5 billion yearly from the collection of the POF, which has been a subject of controversy in the last five years.
The two professional associations believe that it is the responsibility of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding Practice in Nigeria CRFFN, to regulate such payments, arguing that the council was primarily created by an Act of the National Assembly to regulate freight forwarding practice and such related issues.
President of NCMDLCA, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, while speaking at a town hall meeting with members of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria MARAN, and other stakeholders in the supply chain in Lagos, said that the regulatory framework of the CRFFN is formed on an illegal grounds, as the council’s current registrar, who is not an elected chief executive has no such power to regulate or collect any other fees other than freight forwarders subscription fee.
According to him, there is no provision in the law that authorises the Minister of Transport to regulate or collect such fees.
He said:”We are rather under the Ministry of Finance, not Transport. The Finance Ministry has regulatory powers over us, not the Transport Ministry.”
Other stakeholders, who spoke at the event, called for the reconstitution of the governing board of the council, arguing that the council’s board was meant to be occupied by professionals and not representatives of the government.
They insisted that the freight forwarders, who are professionals in their right should be allowed to regulate ourselves through a properly constituted governing board of the council as against the current practice whereby government regulates the practitioners.
Chairman, Apapa chapter of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria AREFFN, Mr. Jones Idemili, one of such stakeholders, who spoke at the event,, noted that the division among Customs brokerage agents and freight forwarders began when many associations erupted in the cargo clearing industry.
According to him, the issue of POF was better handled when it was only one association, arguing that now there are more than 15 freight forwarders associations, only five subscribe to the CRFFN, which makes the issue more complicated.
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