The Nigeria Customs Service yesterday sealed the premises of four major importers of rice for their alleged refusal to pay up duties on several metric tonnes of rice they had imported into Nigerian in 2014.
Announcing the Customs action in a press conference in Lagos yesterday, National Public Relations Officer of customs, Mr. Wale Adeniyi gave the identities of the four defaulters as:
Stallion Group, Olam, Ebony Agro and Conti Agro.
The Nigeria Customs Service yesterday sealed the premises of four major importers of rice for their alleged refusal to pay up duties on several metric tonnes of rice they had imported into Nigerian in 2014.
Announcing the Customs action in a press conference in Lagos yesterday, National Public Relations Officer of customs, Mr. Wale Adeniyi gave the identities of the four defaulters as:
Stallion Group, Olam, Ebony Agro and Conti Agro.
Unconfirmed report also added that Customs had also sealed the premises of Stallion Motors at the old Volkswagen of Nigeria along the Lagos Badagry expressway.
The customs has been having a running battle with the importers over recovery of N23, 603,479,402.44 from them.
The Customs spokesperson said that the companies were beneficiaries of the Rice Import Quota Policy of the Federal Government which granted them special concessions of 10% duty and levy of 20% as against 10% duty and 60% levy by ordinary importers.
He said that the companies imported 750,253,03 metric tonnes more than the specified quota approved to them by customs, and that they have failed to pay up the difference in the duty despite several warnings and ultimatum issued by the Customs Service.
A breakdown of the debt figure shows that; Olam had exceeded its import concession by 149,469.51 metric tonnes with duty liability of N4,998,125,665.86, while a combination of Stallion/ Popular foods/ and Masco Agro exceeded import ceiling by 529,517.33 metric tonnes with duty liability of N17, 187,245,022.96.
Others are; Ebony Agro with 10,070.00 metric tonnes at 328,201,440.00 and Conti Agro (Milan) with imports of 61,178.19 metric tonnes and N1,089,907,273.62.
The Customs also vowed yesterday that sealed premises will not be reopened until the duties have been paid in full.
Reading out the sanctions, Adeniyi said, "we are commencing the sealing up of their warehouses and business premises to prevent operation of those facilities, and we will not allow the discharge of their imports in any of our ports"
Adeniyi also vowed the sanctions will be carried out preparatory to instituting full legal proceedings to compel them to to pay what they owe Nigeria when the courts are back from recess.
“The importers and their sister or associated companies have been blocked from the Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS), thus denying them access to make declarations.
“All these will be done preparatory to instituting full legal proceeding to compel them (importers) to pay what they owe Nigeria, when the courts are back from recess,’’ the customs spokesman said.
Adeniyi said the service had issued several ultimatum to the companies to pay the outstanding charges against them, adding that “today, we are no longer issuing ultimatum’’.
He reassured that the Customs Service is not opposed to concessions that will help to engineer economic growth and that the service will continue to hold beneficiaries accountable to their obligations.
According to him, there are beneficiaries in the automotive and hotel industries who have enjoyed concessions worth billions of Naira. He assured that the service is also compiling names of such companies and will soon request them to justify the concessions they enjoyed.
Adeniyi appealed to all genuine importers not to exercise fear, saying that this exercise is not designed to witch-hunt anyone, but that it was about enforcing payments that are legitimately due to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The customs image maker recalled that 23 companies were granted the concession in 2014, only 19 of them complied. Also, at the wake of the debt recovery exercise of the customs, eight companies were on the list, but four out of them, which are Nigerian companies, have all settled their bills.
Among the companies that have paid are: Arewa Rice Mill, Atafi Rice Industries Limited, and BUA.
"Incidentally, these companies also operate in other climes and other countries, but they don't break the laws like they do here, and the body language of Mr. President is that they must pay up their debts" Adeniyi stated.
He said that the rice duty concession was necessitated because the Federal Government had realized that Nigeria was consuming more rice than it was consuming locally.
"There was a national sufficiency gap which needed to be met in line with stipulated quotas allotted to beneficiaries. Beneficiaries were rice miller's who have invested in the sector and created employment in the value chain"
"Quantity imported in excess of approved quotas will be subjected to the extant rate of 10% duty plus 60% levy", he told reporters.
Meanwhile one of the importers whose premises was sealed off has kicked against the action, saying that the Rice Import Quota Policy of the Customs was not clearly defined.
Apart from this, the company expressed disappointment that customs had defiled a court order which asked it to stay action until the case is heard.
Speaking at the Olam warehouse after the customs sealed it yesterday, Sales Manager and Secretary General of Rice Importers Association, Mr. Shaibu Muhammed assured that the company is ready to reconcile it's records with the customs and that it will pay any difference in duty.
Shaibu maintained that the quota was not well defined and that the vessels have already discharged and were on their way before the quota came from the Nigeria Customs Service.
"We have made our orders before the quota and our vessels came in, by the time the quota came, we found out that what we brought in was excess"
"We are saying that there is no problem since the quota is a yearly thing and they can take this much out of our quota for the next year"
"We have gone to court and the court had directed them to maintain the status quo until the case is determined, so we are surprised we are seeing this" he said
However, Public Relations Officer of the Customs, Mr. Wale Adeniyi in his response said that there is a document that defines the quantity of rice the company was supposed to import. He said that the same document specified that if they import in excess of that, they will pay 10% duty and 60% levy.
"In terms of carrying over the quota to next year, the quota that was given to all rice importers in 2014 was given based on the sufficiency gap, so we cannot just roll over without knowing what the sufficiency gap of 2015 is"
"Olam is a very big player, it’s a very big domestic rice producer and this was the factor used in determining their quota for 2014 and it would be indecent for us to roll the quota over" Adeniyi said
He expressed dismay at the fact that other companies have paid up the concession differences while Olam which claims to be a big company with spread in other countries have refused to comply.
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