The National President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Mr. Increase Uche, has said that in other for customs to stop intercepting cars at auto marts, warehouses and on the highways, automobile dealers should always provide receipts of repairs done on damaged cars.
He also maintained that under normal circumstances, duty is not supposed to be paid on salvaged vehicles.
Mr.Uche who said this recently in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, also maintained that duties can only be paid when the vehicles must have been repaired.
“The duty of the car is not supposed to be paid under that damaged condition with the salvage letter until you repair it, then the customs will be able to say this is how much we want you to pay. Then you have all the salvage cost that have been incurred on the vehicle, then you will do the reduction and reconcile all those repairs that have been done on the vehicle”, he explained.
He also said that in a situation where the importer had already paid duty for a salvaged vehicle; there is need for the person to provide evidence of all the repairs carried out on the vehicle to the customs on demand.
“So if you have collected duty on vehicles as a damaged car and you have repaired the car you are to provide all the receipts showing all that you spent to put the car in order. All these receipts should be with you when you are moving so that when the customs stop you, you will be able to show them all that. You can also take a photograph of the vehicle when it came to Nigeria, how it was before it was repaired, you should also have your salvage certificate. But they do not apply all these”, he stated.
The NAGAFF President also said that there is need to revive the Council for the Regulation of freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) as that is the major avenue for freight forwarders to air their views.
“On the issue of reviewing of vehicle duties, I have something more disturbing in my mind than this area you want us to talk about. We want CRFFN to start working let us checkmate all these things, we want a platform where we can talk and the government will hear and that is through CRFFN”, he concluded.
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