A freight forwarding group; Freight Forwarders Elders Consultative Forum (FFECF) has advised the federal government to review the duties payable on imported vehicles.
The group also accused terminal operators and shipping companies of imposing high charges on imported vehicles thereby making it very difficult for importers.
National President of FFECF, Chief Paully Nwaosu fingered the Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Logistics as the terminal with the highest charges on vehicles coming into the country.
“To me, why you see so many imported vehicles at the ports is not that the importers do not want to clear their vehicles, but the duties are very high. The duties are supposed to come down by now because going by the years of those vehicles the duties are supposed to be reviewed down, but they are still what they were instead, the duty is increasing. Another thing is that the charges from the shipping companies and terminal charges are very high, especially at PTML.
No importer will bring his consignment and leave it there but when the charges are very high, the importers will find it difficult to pay the whole bills”, he stated.
He also said that these charges have reduced the level of importation into the country to about 30%.
“Because of the terminal charges and duties vehicle importations have reduced unlike before, all the terminals and car parks will be filled up, but not any longer they have reduced to like 30%. The situation in this country is bad, if someone does not have money to feed his/her family, the person cannot be talking about buying car. The government said that we have come out of recession but we have not seen anything. You will have money to feed yourself before talking about buying a car”
Chief Nwaosu commended the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) for their fight against car smuggling, saying that it is yielding positive fruits.
“In the area of car smuggling, customs have been trying their best. I believe that they have scored up to pass mark; I cannot give them 100%. The smuggled cars have been limited and if any one comes in at all thy person must have paid the duty on the vehicle” he concluded.
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