Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service; Mr Wale Adeniyi has disclosed that the use of full chassis numbers is now mandatory in the clearance of imported vehicles.
Adeniyi said this in an interview on Wednesday in Abuja, where he added that the new directive is to shut out smuggling.
He said that the decision was made after collaboration among FRSC, FIRS and Customs to shore up revenue and make it impossible for smuggled vehicles to obtain number plate licences.
Adeniyi said that use of full chassis numbers in clearance purpose would involve FRSC and Customs officials working together through the interface of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
He said that there would be an integration of ICT systems of Customs and FRSC to enable each of the agencies to access information.
Speaking further, he stated that: “Henceforth Customs officers have been mandated to use the full chassis numbers of imported vehicles in customs clearance.
“Customs only used six chassis numbers before but for the purpose of this data base, customs has to use the full chassis numbers, FRSC data base is not compactable with just six chassis numbers.
“Customs officers are now directed not to accept chassis number that are not complete for documentation and customs clearances purposes,’’ Adeniyi said.
According to him, FRSC data base contains the name, personal data of car owners and it is being used by various security organisations in the country to fight crime such as insurgency, kidnapping, among others.
He said that the intention was to integrate Customs data base into the FRSC data base so that it would help improve integrity of Customs data.
Adeniyi added that this would also enable the tax authorities to known the details of car owners, adding that the use of full chassis numbers was another new remarkable milestone development in the collaboration of the three agencies.
According to him, currently FRSC system is configured to take the full chassis numbers on vehicles whereas the customs system is not.
“Using FRSC data base cases of stolen vehicles, security agencies have gotten success in combating and investigation of stolen vehicles.
“Recently 45 such stolen vehicles were recovered by the Nigeria Police, using details that they were able to access from FRSC data.
“So using the full chassis number will help to bridge the existing gap in the registration of vehicles; so this will help to stop smuggling and will also help to boost revenue.
“To allow full integration, all customs declarations and documentations must be based on the full chassis numbers of the imported vehicles and unless this is done clearance will not be effected.
“And registration of such vehicles for use in Nigeria will henceforth be disallowed when this collaboration project takes off,’’ he added.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that Customs, FRSC, FIRS were working on a collaborative project to shut out smuggled vehicles from obtaining number plates to ensure that imported vehicles paid duties before registration to shore up revenue.
It was part of the collaboration that every importer would be made to produce Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) before they could conduct any business with customs.
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