A clearing agent; Mr Augustine Ahamefule has advised the federal government reduce the tariffs paid on damaged cars imported into the country.
Mr Ahamefule told Shipping Position Daily at the Ports and Terminal Multipurpose Logistics (PTML) terminal, in Apapa, Lagos that tariffs and charges paid on damaged cars are the same thing with new cars, which is not supposed to be like that.
He also said that the only thing the Customs consider as accident car is if the chassis of the car was affected in the cause of the accident and most times the chassis are not affected.
He also advised the government to bring down the tariff to encourage people to go into automobile importation business.
“The aim of every business man is to maximize profit; most of them buy these damaged cars at a very cheap price with the intention that when they come down to this place they will repair them and sell. But I am telling you now that the amount of money they use in clearing normal cars is the same with the one they use in clearing the damaged cars”
The only thing Customs considers as accident is if the chassis of the car was affected due to the accident and most times, their chassis are not always affected”, he said.
“Cars importation is still booming but the government should do something about that, they are not helping the importers because of so many policies on ground. They should bring it down so that people will invest there,” he appealed.
Speaking further, he also accused Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) of not living up to their responsibilities as the two major bodies in the industry in the area of protecting the interest of freight forwarders.
He also said that most times, instead of the associations intervening to solve a problem, they end up compounding the issue.
“They are even making the whole situation worst both internally and externally. If you bring a problem to them as an organised body that will go and channel our challenges to the appropriate authority most times you find out that those problems were not resolved. Instead of facing the problem and solve it for the benefit of all the agents they end up solving their own problems without thinking about other people,” he concluded.
Discussion about this post