• Clearing
agents seek review of auto policy
• Customs
redeploys top officers
Scores of
vehicles were yesterday trapped at land borders as the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS) began the full restriction of vehicle importation through those
areas.Some stakeholders especially clearing agents who claim that their
vehicles were ordered months before the announcement of the restriction are
caught on the wrong side.
It was
learnt that many of the clearing agents are also considering alternative ways
of delivering their consignments through smugglers’ routes, but the NCS said
that would not be possible as its officers had beefed up security at all routes
linking the borders.
With the
takeoff of the ban, the prices of fairly used vehicles popularly called tokunbo
will rise as many Nigerians who are contending with economic recession may not
be able to buy new ones. It may also increase smuggling, thereby making
government to lose revenue. But it has the potential of revving up the local
production of vehicles.
The Federal
Government had on December 5 placed a ban on the importation of used and new
vehicles through land borders with effect from January 1, 2017. The order,
however, gave the importers of vehicles through the land borders a grace period
of up till December 31, 2016 to clear their vehicles at neighbouring ports.
The Public
Relations Officer of the NCS, Wale Adeniyi, confirmed to The Guardian yesterday
that the borders were already shut and the officers were at their duty posts to
enforce the law.
President of
the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Olayiwola Shittu,
in a telephone interview with The Guardian yesterday said the government was
avoiding the real issues. He urged the Federal Government to solve the problems
at the ports; review the auto policy and publish the duty payable on every
model of vehicle to halt the regime of extortion by the customs.
He said:
“What we expect is a total review of the auto policy by the Federal Government.
Where the vehicles come through does not matter. It is because of that policy
that people are taking their consignments to the neighbouring country. Blocking
the borders against vehicle importation is just like an ostrich burying its
head in the sand. The problem is not solved. We need to adopt the Ghanaian
model about clearing cars and we have told the customs this in the past four
years, we don’t know the reason why, other than protecting themselves because
of the extortion they do on vehicles.
“Let them
forget about banning vehicles from the borders. What they should do is, the
newer your vehicle, the lesser your duty. The older your vehicle, the higher
your tariff. If you go to Ghana now, you will see them using new cars, not all
these old things they are dumping here,” he said.
Shittu
stressed: “Whether you are coming through the border or the ports, everybody
should know how much he is paying as customs duty. You will pay the money and
take your vehicle. You don’t need to appeal to anybody. Why is that difficult
for them to do? It should be a public thing. They should put it on their
website. This will reduce the level of extortion on importation of vehicle, if
they can do that. It will solve the problem.” On the stranded vehicles at the
ports of neighbouring countries, Shittu said the only viable option is that
shipping companies should engage barges to bring vehicles from neighbouring
countries to Nigerian ports.
“They will
use coastal vessels to transfer them. But the problem will continue to be there
as long as the customs continues to make the duty payable on vehicles a
secret,” he said.
The Public
Relations Officer of the NCS, Seme Command, Mr. Selechang Taupyen, said “the
Federal Government has directed that importation of cars through the land
borders be banned and we are the agency to enforce it and we have started with
that.
“The border
is close to the point of importation of cars and the command has placed its men
and escorts at strategic places to ensure that there is no smuggling of cars
through the border.“We also have a good working relationship and synergy with
other security agencies who assist us in enforcing this policy because we all
work for the same government.
“We advise
the public to abide by the government policy and if they must purchase a car
then it should come through the sea port as any vehicle that tries to come
through the land border would be seized and confiscated. Violators of the law
would face the full wrath of the law.’’
It is
unclear how the issue of orders that had been made through land borders before
the enactment of the policy would be handled. Officials were not forthcoming if
such vehicles would be permanently restricted in the ports of first entry or allowed
into Nigeria at added cost to the importers. If the latter becomes the case,
there will be great wailing among importers and clearing agents who will be
made to lose everything. One vehicle importer told The Guardian that ‘‘this is
an area the government has to resolve one way or the other to stop people from
committing suicide.’’
The
President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents
(NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero is even more concerned about the workability of the
policy.
He said:
“The same policy was reviewed by the previous government because we were losing
revenue. All the old vehicles were in Cotonou and that policy alone enriched
that country. Now we are bringing the policy again when we have failed to
address the issues at the ports. If you bring in vehicles to the ports with
high costs, how do you sell the vehicles? And the kind of valuation that
customs are giving vehicles at the point of entry, these are the issues we must
address.”
Amiwero
lamented that procedures at the ports in terms of valuation of vehicles are
worrisome, alleging that the customs are not complying with the valuation
principle.
“Government
should address the issues of valuation of vehicles; cost of bringing in the
consignment into the country; and the entire procedure. That is when you can
then start to talk about banning it. Besides, government must understand that
it is not every vessel that can come into Nigeria due to shallow draft. Most of
the vessels can decide to go to Togo than coming here because of our draft
level. Go to Togo, Benin Republic and Cameroun and see how many ships are
berthing,” he said, even as he expressed doubts about the capacity of the
customs to combat massive smuggling that would arise as a result of the policy.
In another
development, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd),
has approved the redeployment of eight Assistant Comptrollers-General and 238
Deputy Comptrollers of Customs in a bid to strengthen operations and reposition
the service to meet the challenges of the New Year. Customs Spokesman, Wale
Adeniyi has been redeployed to Apapa Customs Area Command, Lagos.
Duardian
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