The Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML) command of the Nigeria Customs Service, has said that most of the imported vehicles that come into the country through the command are not actually damaged, but only have dents.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the command, Muhammadu Yakubu, who disclosed this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, also explained that as against what is seen around, vehicles with different degrees of damages, most of them according to customs standard are not actually damaged. He explained that, except if the chassis and the airbag of the vehicle is affected, the vehicle only has dent.
He however said that there are laid-down procedures and processes of clearing accidented vehicles and unless those conditions are met, the vehicle will not be regarded as an accidented one.
The Command’s image maker lauded the federal government on banning the importation of vehicles through the land borders, saying that it has increased the number of vehicles coming in through the seaports in the country.
“The number of vehicles coming into this port has tremendously increased since the ban on vehicle importation through the land borders, we have indeed recorded a high turnout of vehicles coming in here, you know this port is RORO port so vehicles come in here, most of them are damaged vehicles but not accident cars”, he said.
Explaining further, he stated that: “You know there are things we look out before you can call a vehicle an accident one, if there is a little dent on a vehicle you can call it an accident vehicle. For instance, if the bumper of the vehicles are damaged and some damages on the body of the vehicle you can’t call it accident vehicles. You can only call it accident when the chassis of the vehicles is greatly affected. And if it is accident actually we have a process of doing that, you have to come, we examine; we have a desk designed as accidented desk, you go there and write an application, you will carry the officer he will go and examine and make sure that the chassis of the vehicle and the airbag have been affected. So from there you will write a report and send to valuation for the appropriate duty to be given to you”.
He said that a proper examination of the vehicle will be carry out where the pictures of the vehicle will be taken and a report written to the valuation unit to know the duty in the case of an accidented vehicle.
“You have to go through all these processes if really they are accidented but if it is just a dent, that means they are not accidented maybe the door or the front is affected in as much as the chassis and the airbag are not affected it will not be classified as an accidented vehicle you have to pay the normal appropriate duty on the vehicle. If they are really accidented as I explained earlier, we have to examine, you will write and application direct it to the CAC desk, regarding the vehicles and we will go and examine to ensure that the chassis and the airbag are damaged and then a report will be written to the valuation unit with the picture of the car to testify that the car is really an accidented car. But if it’s just a dent that means it is not accidented, which means you have to pay the normal duty as everybody pays”, he added.
Reacting to the accusations of the discrepancies on the duty payable on vehicles of the same model, brand and year at both the Tin Can and PTML commands of the services, he debunked the rumours saying that the service has a fix duty for vehicles of the same year, model and brand irrespective of the port it came through.
“Actually, the issue of people saying that what you pay as duty on a particular vehicle at PTML is different from what you pay for the same type of vehicle at Tin Can is a lie, I am very sure that we pay the same thing, because we go by the books, we have a valuation tariff that is where we do the calculation and tell you what you need to pay, Customs in Tin Can are the same as in PTML. We have more cars in the terminal now as we have up to three to four vessels that just berthed”, he concluded.
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