Wharf landing collection fees on vehicles and other products landing at the Lagos Ports are legal, the the state Wharf Landing Agency Chairman Chief Gboyega Salvador-Adebayo, has said.
Salvador-Adebayo, who was responding to an alleged clamp down on 15 vehicles by the agency for refusing to pay the fees, said members of the Nigeria Licensed Customs Agent (ANLCA) and other Maritime union were aware of the wharf landing fees collection.
According to him, the Lagos State Wharf Landing Fees Collecting Authority Law was enacted in 2009, by the state House Assembly, sequel to the approvals by the office of the Joint Tax Board and the Federal Ministry of Finance in 2001 and 2002
The agency chief said, according to the law, trucks, buses and cars leaving the ports, are expected to pay the approved fees.
He said: “The agents claimed they pay N200 and they are issued a receipt. Let me state that the least of the wharf landing fees is N300 for cars and we don’t issue receipt. We only give stickers. The agency only issues receipt to those that pay penalty to the state government account.”
He said any person in possession of goods on which wharf landing fee is charged, whether as owner, shipper, transporter or agent, shall be liable to pay.
Salvador-Adebayo said wharf landing fees collectors are not thugs as claimed by the agents and other maritime unions.They are collecting revenue for the Lagos State Government and majority of them are graduates, he added.
