THE National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to review of the Customs and Excise Management Act C45 of 2004.
The group, in a letter to the presidency, which was obtained by SlyNews requested for the amendment/repeal of the Customs and Excise Management Act C45 of 2004, to includes procedures and global tools not contained in the present Act.
The letter signed by its President, Lucky Amiwero said there a lot of new processes and procedures that are applied to daily transactions but not in the current CEMA.
The group wanted the review to include “outdated provisions in the CEMA that is to be amended or repealed and treaties, conventions and protocols that contains tools for the application of procedure on international best practice that is presently applied by contracting parties on trade globally and not contained in the CEMA”
NCMDLCA listed 16 the areas that needs amendment as a result of new procedures that are applied daily and tools for international best practice that should be included in the (CEMA).
These includes: post clearance audit; risk management system; authorized economic operators (AEO); scanning (NII); appeal procedure and right of appeal without penalty; advance ruling; information publication and administration of trade regulation; financing of customs service operation; and rule of origin.
Others are: intellectual property right; mutual administrative assistance; development of electronic system; single window plat form; travelers/duty free shop; offence and penalty; tenure and qualification of the comptroller-general
He stressed the need for the Federal Government to constitute technical and legal committee, being the responsibility of the executive to present the bill for amending or repealing of the relevant provision of the CEMA.
“The technical committee with vast experience on trade procedure, will look at relevant sections that requires amendments, as a result of the new procedures introduced in our daily application and process that are of global best practice, which requires simple legislative amendment to aid the trade process in the country,” he said.
