1 week ago
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The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has enjoined the Federal government and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to suspend enforcement of 4 per cent Customs Processing Charge (CPC) and engage in sensitization process to enlightened people on the charges.
The Director General of LCCI, Dr. Chinyere Almona, who made the statement while reacting on the sudden implementation of new charges said engaging in a structured sensitization process, will ensure that stakeholders are adequately informed and prepared before its implementation.
Expressing worried over manner of its sudden implementation without consultations with relevant stakeholders, she said Section 23 of the same Act clearly mandates public notification and stakeholder engagement before the introduction of new charges.
She said that the business community, including importers, exporters, freight forwarders, and clearing agents, was not given any prior notice or opportunity to prepare for this additional financial burden.
She said that beyond the absence of consultation, the Chamber said there is need for government agencies to be concerned about and sensitive to any additional cost burden on businesses and regulations that can create a difficult business environment. Speaking further, she said currently, businesses grapple with various levies, taxes, and charges. We are also faced with other policy cost implications like a high interest rate, increasing cost of operations due to inflation, and scarcity of FOREX to import critical input for production.
“Most recently, the business community has been grappling with a planned 50 per cent hike in telecoms tariffs in the face of rising logistics costs due to high energy prices.”
She said the sudden enforcement of this charge is already disrupting business operations, increasing transaction costs, and causing uncertainty in the trading environment. Such an approach is detrimental to economic growth and investor confidence.
She demanded for more efficiency with port operations to ease the import and export of goods, reduce corruptive tendencies, and take trade facilitation as equally important as revenue generation.
She said the Nigerian Customs Service surpassed its revenue target for 2024 by over a trillion Naira, reaching N6.1 trillion.
This feat according to her has informed an increase in the budget figure from N49.7 trillion to N54 trillion for the 2025 federal budget.
With the massive revenue generation from the ports, we expect more investment into boosting port infrastructure, process automation, and a conducive business environment to support export earnings and boost our foreign exchange revenue.
She said that the sudden implementation of this charge risks causing congestion at the ports, as many traders and clearing agents may hesitate to process shipments, leading to delays and possible disruptions in the supply chain. Such an outcome will ultimately hurt revenue generation for the government and impact the overall ease of doing business in Nigeria.
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