The President of United Berger Automobile Dealers Association; Mr Metche Nnadiekwe has urged the federal government to review duties payable on imported vehicles coming into the country.
Metche, who made this appeal recently in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, also said that until something is done towards reduction of duties payable on imported vehicles, importers will not stop cutting corners in the quest to bring in vehicles into the country.
He charged automobile dealers to ensure full payment of duties on imported vehicles to avoid embarrassment.
“I am very much aware that the cost of clearing is on a very high side, honesty speaking. The government should review it and do something about that because if it is reasonable, people will not be cutting corners. I also advice dealers to go and pay their duty to avoid embarrassment from customs, if you are a car seller, and you sold a vehicle to somebody and maybe on the person’s way to the east or any other part of the country the car was intercepted and seized by customs officers, definitely the customer will come back to the seller and either ask for a refund or another car. Therefore I am of the opinion that since we are working with the government to bring down the duties of all these vehicles, let the dealers pay their actual duty”, he said.
He also disclosed that the association’s executive is already discussing with the government to see that something is done about the high duty payable on damaged vehicles, adding that extra duty should not be expected to be paid on a damaged car especially when it has been repaired by the importer and sold to a customer.
“When you import a damaged car, there is a price for it and it is always cheaper than that of fairly-new car. So when you sell it to a buyer, you won’t go on and be telling the buyer that the car was damaged. That is something we have to look into because it is a different arrangement so I am looking at talking to the CG of Customs so that he will be aware of that”, he told our correspondent.
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