A clearing agent and the Financial Secretary of Tin Can Port chapter of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Mr. Ifeanyi Emoh has said that instability in duty payable on imported vehicles and collected by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) at different ports that make the average Nigerian to see freight forwarders as liars.
“Vehicle clearance and importation in Nigeria is surrounded by instability in custom duty, there are different duties at different terminals. For example, the amount you pay to clear a 2010 Toyota product at Tin-Can port is different from the amount you will pay to clear the same car at Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Logistics, (PTML)”, he stated.
According to him, “if you are a vehicle importer and you ask five different agents working at different ports for the cost of clearing a particular vehicle, you will end up getting different prices, which is not supposed to be so”.
He added that, most bonded terminals especially, the ones holding vehicles are lying fallow while major terminals are holding 99% of the vehicles coming into the country.
“Major bonded terminals are lying fallow; the operators in the bonded terminal now use it as incentive to bring cargoes into the terminal. That is why the cost of clearing cargoes at bonded terminals is always cheaper than that for clearing cargoes at the ports” he concluded.
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