There are indications that there is a lull in smuggling of used vehicles into the country between January and April 2016.
Auto Port Weekly investigations also confirmed that seizures of such vehicles by the various enforcement unit of the Nigeria Customs Service dipped when compared to the level of such seizures made in the corresponding period in 2015.
Commands at the various border posts like the Seme and Idiroko recorded huge revenue on imported used vehicles from neighbouring countries like Benin Republic and Togo respectively in 2015, but statistics revealed that 2016 recorded lesser influx of such vehicles.
Statistical analysis revealed that the Federal Operation Unit, Zone A of the customs recorded a sharp drop in the number of vehicles intercepted in 2016, when compared with 2015.
In 2015, a total of 86 units of assorted fairly used vehicles valued at N100,000,000.00 were intercepted by the enforcement arm of customs between January and April.
But according to the figures made available to Auto Port Weekly in Lagos, by the command, a total of 32 units of vehicles and 12 cut buses with duty paid value of N87,210,000.00 were seized during the same period in 2016.
Also, importers of vehicles are gradually responding to the directive to pay duty on used vehicles at the border command.
Meanwhile, a cross section of dealers who spoke with our correspondent noted that smuggling of cars through unapproved routes have dropped.
The Seme command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) last year handled not less than 8,419 imported vehicles between January and March .
But between January and April, 2016, Seme Command recorded 221 seizures with a total Duty Paid Value of N180,847,967.60.
According to the command, in 2015, N1.3billion was realised within the period from the Vehicle Import Transit regime it entered into with Benin Republic. It also recorded 200 seizures of the items with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N42.8 million.
The command also said that the border is no longer safe for smugglers, especially those who hitherto used the very strategic border to illegally bring in fairly-used vehicles into Nigeria.
The command’s controller; Comptroller Victor Dimka, apparently satisfied with what the transformation in the command at a recent meeting at Seme, had stated that “illegal importation of fairly-used vehicles through the command has been curtailed’’.
He added that seizures of illegally imported fairly used vehicles now account for more than 50% of the command’s total revenue.
According to him, Seme Command has collected N3, 265,335,939.89 between January and April,2016 ‘’despite the dwindling economic activities and challenge of high exchange rate on the importation of general goods into the country’’.
Between January and April, 2016, Seme Command recorded 221 seizures with a total Duty Paid Value of N180,847,967.60, while 17 suspects were arrested and are currently facing prosecution.
In chat, an importer of used vehicles from the neighbouring country, Frank Ozorji maintained that the scarcity of forex and hardship experienced is the major reason for the drop.
Ozorji added that smuggling of used vehicles into the country cannot be eliminated completely but can only be curtailed.
The dealer noted that seized vehicles by customs will continue to drop and revenue collected on vehicles will also be done by the customs commands because of unfriendly government policies in the country.
According to him, car dealers at the borders are cooperating with the customs in the area of duty payable on such items and in recent time the number has dropped significantly.
In a similar reaction, Mr. Achu franklin opined that smuggling does exist, but the of number of those who buy such vehicles has dropped due to the economic situation.
He pointed out that "since businesses are no longer attractive in Nigeria, there is no point importing anything at the moment.
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