The Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) has expressed dissatisfaction at the poor level of compliance with payment of the Practitioners Operations Fee (POF). The fee is internally generated revenue (IGR) approved by the Federal Government to be paid by freight forwarders.
The council disclosed that since the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the POF collection, only 400,000 Bill of Laden has paid the fees, while the majority of freight forwarders were shortchanging the government.
Speaking at a two-day town hall meeting with terminal operators, held in Lagos and has a theme, “POF Enforcement, Compliance, The Journey So Far”, the Acting Registrar of CRFFN, Mrs. Chinyere Uromta, lamented that the revenue so far collected is a far cry from the Federal Government’s expectation.
She said this is despite the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the Council 2021 signed with terminal operators to confirm payment of POF before releasing cargoes.
Uromta also revealed that the council is currently strategising with other government agencies, including the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on working out how to ensure full compliance with POF collection.
According to her, the Governing Board of the council’s discussion with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has reached 80 per cent to ensure that terminals at the airports, such as Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) and Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL) collect the POF on behalf of the CRFFN.
The CRFFN boss appreciated the terminal operators for agreeing to corporate with CRFFN on the POF collection, even as she pointed that many of them are yet to integrate with the council to ensure compliance.
According to her, the benefits of the POF collection are enormous, as it seeks to develop the freight forwarding sector and educate practitioners up to global standards.
Also speaking, the CRFFN Chairman of the Committee on Monitoring, Enforcement and Compliance, Timothy Awogbemi, stressed the need for more operators to come on board and integrate their system with CRFFN to ensure enforcement of POF.
He disclosed that while some terminals are cooperating well with CRFFN at 100 per cent, some are at 10 per cent, while some do not even want to corporate at all.
“The little money we are collecting is to train the freight forwarders and make them grow academically and on every side. Without the freight forwarders, there would be no terminal operators,” he said
The Chairperson of Seaports Terminal Operators of Nigeria (STOAN), Princess Vicky Haastrup, who was represented by the Secretary of the association, Boye Uzamot, urged operators present to voice out their challenges in complying with the collection.
On his part, Chairman of CRFFN Committee on Fund Raising, Increase Uche, cautioned terminal operators and freight forwarders that POF has come to stay at Nigerian ports.
While speaking on the legal perspective of the fee following CRFFN Act No.16 2007, he likened the collection of POF to other statutory levies being collected at the port including the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) seven per cent port surcharge and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) surcharges among others.
Meanwhile, the enforcement officers of CRFFN on POF collection lamented the high level of malpractice by freight forwarders in avoiding payment of POF.
According to them, many freight forwarders have more than one container on their Bill of Laden, but usually pay for just one container.
They added that releasing officers at the various terminals have been directed not to take receipt of POF payment from freight forwarders as confirmation, as many of the practitioners are falsifying receipts.
They also revealed that the CRFFN is currently working with law enforcement agencies to penalise freight forwarders who have shortchanged government in POF payment.
They charged terminal operators to check the portal to confirm the payment through account access by releasing officers, noting that 80 per cent of them are doing so manually, which is through Account Access, without full integration.
“The Ministry of Transportation team would be coming along with CRFFN team to individual terminals to see what their positions are and inspect their level of compliance. Before then, each terminal should compile, from July 2022 till date the number of Bill of Laden they have cleared so that they can compare notes with CRFFN,” they said.
