A maritime expert; Emmanuel Nwagbara, has explained that the high rate of tariff payable on new vehicles has pushed importers of these vehicles to smuggle them into the country through the land borders.
Nwagbara, who disclosed this in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily last week in Lagos, also said that he has always counseled that the tariff payable on these vehicles should be brought down so that people will be discouraged from smuggling them.
He also said that banning of land importation of vehicles has been a major booster for vehicles smuggling through the land borders. He also denied saying that Customs officers were colluding with smugglers of used vehicles.
“I didn’t say that customs colluded, what I said was that the high tariff that the customs imposed on new vehicles created opportunities for people to smuggle new vehicles through the land borders and I maintained that I have always counseled that the tariff should be brought down.
I also said along the line that the banning of the importation of vehicles through the land borders has also encouraged smuggling. I said because of this high tariff, for new vehicles in the ports, importers tend to take their vehicles to neighboring ports and in-turn smuggle them through the land borders into Nigeria”
He also said that because of the high tariff, importers are pushed to bring in these vehicles with fake documents, even as he called for urgent review of the policy.
“I also said that there was a recent case where some new vehicles where imported through the land borders using fake documents and that the case is still on-going and we are asking the Nigeria Customs Service to get to the root of that. I don’t want to disclose further when I went to customs headquarters some time ago, I talked about this. At the appropriate time I will give details of the incidence which we are asking the Customs to investigate properly and charge the appropriate people to court”, he added.
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