Says: FG May Tinker With Import Prohibition List
Minister of transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman has accused Nigerian importers of gross insincerity in their declaration and deliberately circumventing payment of duty on their imports.
The minister who gave the damning verdict last week after a working visit round some maritime facilities in Lagos alleged that as much as it is acknowledged that charges payable to providers of shipping services are high, Nigerian importers are also contributing to the menace of unfriendly practices in Nigerian ports.
Suleiman specifically alleged that 60 to 70 per cent of personal declarations are not true reflections of what is in the containers, adding that Nigeria importers have attitude problems.
He condemned the influx of prohibited items through questionable imports and disclosed that the National Economic Management Team is already tinkering with a review of the import prohibition list.
“At the National Economic Management Team of which I am a member, we are reviewing the situation to look at the difference between banning and tariff, is it okay to continue to ban products from being imported into Nigeria or do we tax them, do we put tariff that will make importation very difficult, because the essence of banning is to among other things improve local industries so that you don’t make Nigeria a dumping ground”.
He explained that trade liberalisation has led to influx of all manners of questionable items from some countries, even as he explained that this informed the idea of banning some items.
Apparently confirming that the import prohibition list review will go side-by-side with the on-going review of the port concession programme, the minister disclosed that “government is reviewing the entire process and system and at the end of the day, we will come out and tell you this is our understanding of how far the process of concession has gone”.
He stated that he committee that is reviewing the concession process has about three weeks and that it is the duty of he committee to affirm whether port charges are high or not.
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