Unhappy with the double duty that most auto dealers and importers pay, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) has called for the establishment of Vehicles Improvement Centres in Nigeria.
Acting National Executive Director of CILT, Mr. Paul Ndibe made this call last week in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos. He said imposition of double duty is based on regulation and taxation.
“The problem is based on two things; regulation and taxation. That they should pay a particular duty on a car, then the second one is the way and manner by which the duty is paid, the duties are paid based on the value. For instance when you import a damaged car, you pay a smaller amount; when you repair the vehicle and put it in order extra value has been added to the vehicle by repairing it. Which means the value has increased? Now the ultimate buyer is now the person that the customs will stop on the way and his is expected to pay for the value added on the vehicle. So the way out of the whole thing is to have a Car improvement Centres in the country”, he argued.
He also said that the centres will be charged with the responsibilities of taking inventory of the condition of the vehicles when they were imported into the country and how they were when leaving the centre.
“In these centres, they will take a record of the condition the car was when imported into the country and the condition when leaving the centre and it will be accompanied by a certificate. These certificates will enable the customs to know that there were no lies about the presentation of the vehicle when imported into the country. The certificate will also be shown to anybody that wants to buy the car so that the person will know the condition the car was when it came into the country and the repairs that were done on the vehicle. In that case the owner will be going with the certificate in case if the customs stops the person, the person will also know that this was what happened to this vehicle before i purchased it. If there is no such centre in the country we will still be having this issue of customs stopping vehicles on the road asking for duty paid. The centre will capture the condition the vehicle when they were imported into the country”, he concluded.
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