The President of the association, Tony Nwabunike, at the inauguration ceremony held in Lagos, said non-compliance has manifested through under-declaration of goods, undervaluation, false declaration, deliberate application of wrong Harmonised System (HS) Code.
He said all these malpractices are to evade accurate duty payments and outright smuggling, which have resulted in the seizure of goods and arrests of perpetrators.
Nwabunike disclosed that to stem these, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) would resort to several interventionist methods like the issuance of Demand Notices (DN) and others, to recover lost revenue.
He said over 30 per cent of revenue collected by the NCS was achieved via interventions such as the demand notices, which are, most times, fallouts of non-compliance.
The ANLCA boss, however, took a swipe at the Customs for impeding trade by its establishment of sub-groups such as, the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Strike Force, Customs Police and other agencies, who chase down released containers on the highway to repeat the processes, which the same Customs had carried out in the ports.
He also pointed at the police departments that sometimes accost certified containers for arrest, thereby causing avoidable delays and increasing the cost of doing business.
The President condemned these activities, as they violate the principle of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), which aims at promoting international trade by eliminating barriers.
Nwabunike, however, charged the newly inaugurated compliance team to spare no efforts in ensuring that these evil practices militating against trade were checkmated on all sides, including the importers, agents and government agencies.
In his acceptance speech, chairman of the compliance team, Lameen Aliyu, vowed to stamp out non-conformity and variant behaviours in the system and ensure that agents and stakeholders comply with trade laws and regulations for a better working environment.
The event also saw the appointment of Femi Anifowoshe and Mazi Ibekwe Nnamdi to the positions of Zonal Coordinator and Secretary of the West Zone respectively
