.The Acting Customs Area Controller in charge of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Controller Usman Yahaya inspection some of the seized vehicles at the unit recently.
The Chief Executive Officer of Multimix Academy, Dr. Obiora Madu has blamed importers of used vehicles and clearing agents for the difficulty in having uniform duty on imported vehicles of the same year and model.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, Madu also accused freight forwarders of only focusing on negotiating with officers of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) instead of insisting on proper documentation.
Madu, who is also the Director, African Center for Supply Chain, reiterated that it is the importers’ attitude that has made customs to insist on 100% physical examination.
“So in all honesty, I think importers are the people pushing customs not to have uniform duties on imported vehicles. I know of an importer whenever he comes, they say he has come because his documentations are perfect and he is not ready to part with a dime. No matter who you are, he is ready to go to any extent that you want to go”
“So our freight forwarders, some of them don’t care about documentation and the rest of them what they care is negotiation, how much will it cost to get this thing out of the ports instead of doing the right thing”
Explaining further, he said that another reason it may be difficult for a uniformed duty to be placed on these vehicles is because some of the importers buy from different parts of the world at different prices, he added that the customs now rely on the importer’ documentation to know the duty.
“For example, a Lexus 300saloon you can buy from America, UK or Asia and the prices cannot be the same. So I think it is difficult for people to really regulate these prices. So at that point in time, they are now relying on the importers. Someone will have a car of $17, 000 and he will put the value at $3, 000”
Madu however appealed that all hands must be on deck to ensure there is trade facilitation at the ports.
“If you are talking about trade facilitation, it is on both sides, if the importers are not compliant, then customs cannot facilitate trade, so it is a two-way thing. They need to help customs by being compliant. All the companies that are on blue and green, are they complaining? No, they are rated high integrity wise as far as customs is concerned, so customs does not delay their containers when they come. But if you are in red, everything must come down from that container for examination”, he concluded.
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