Oluyinka Onigbinde
The town hall meeting organized by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), to hear the grievances of stakeholders regarding the recently introduced Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) ended in a deadlock, this is even as the clearing agents and motor dealers’ association present at the meeting threatened to continue with the strike action.
At the meeting which took place at the Customs Training College Ikeja on Tuesday, the Customs Controller General who was represented by Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Zone ‘A’, Modupe Aremu who was accompanied by ACG Tarrif and Trade, Hamza Gumi, ACG ICT and Modernization, Saidu Galadima were unable to pacify the clearing agents from calling off the ongoing strike action at the ports.
Although the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Zone ‘A’, explained that the Customs is going to modify the complaints of the clearing agents to arrive at a conclusive arrangement for the VIN before Friday this week, the agents and other stakeholders present at the meeting were however bent on the suspension of the VIN valuation.
Speaking at the town hall meeting the General Secretary Motor Dealers Association Lagos State Chapter; Olaniran Tia urged the customs to suspend the VIN valuation at least for a period of 90 days for the service to fine-tune the policy, this is even as they threatened that failure to do so could lead to nationwide protest of motor dealers.
Also speaking, a foremost clearing agent, Prince Taiye Oyeniyi, said the issue of VIN valuation is a simple matter, saying that clearing agents have been on the issue of VIN valuation for two to five years.
Oyeniyi however advised NCS management to suspend the implementation of VIN valuation until an ideal process is structured to capture duties for used vehicles.
“Let me quickly correct one impression, all freight forwarders in this country are not against VIN valuation. What we are trying to say is that the normal thing for valuation should be done.
“What are we saying? For instance, what is VIN valuation? This is to make sure that your chassis numbers of the vehicle are captured to tell the government through the Customs how much to pay.
“But our argument now remains that a 15 years old vehicle, for instance, has a N2m worth of value, cost, insurance and freight. Under the normal settings internationally, there is depreciation of vehicles on a yearly basis.
“What you sell is not what I sell. For instance, you cannot use the Customs value for vehicles or any consignments coming into the country.
“We are pleading with them (Customs) to go back to the management. Let them give us the period of 90 days to clear the backlog of trapped vehicles,” Prince Oyeniyi stated.
However, addressing the media after the meeting, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs, Modupe Aremu, explained that the Customs is going to modify the complaints of the clearing agents to arrive at a conclusive arrangement for the VIN.
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According to her, “We are going to modify their complaints going forward. The modification will take care of the complaints of the clearing agents as regards VIN.”
When asked if she was satisfied with the meeting with the clearing agents, the Customs ACG explained that it was like a family meeting and will be encouraged going forward.
“We talked and rubbed minds on a solution to this ongoing strike at the ports.
“The agents were actually trained ahead of the implementation of the VIN valuation. That was why we were not expecting this kind of response from them when we began the VIN implementation.
“Due to all the complaints that the agents gave today, we are going to go back to the drawing board to modify all the issues that they raised. Hopefully, very soon we will get back to them on the outcome of the modification. VIN has come to stay, it cannot be suspended.”
Speaking also to journalists after the meeting, the Deputy President of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr Segun Musa, insisted that until Customs gets back to clearing agents, the strike action at the ports will continue.
“The Customs has given us a time frame of Friday to get back to us. So, we will wait till Friday to hear from them. Until then, the strike continues.
“They (Customs) said tomorrow is their management meeting and that they will get us feedback on what they decide by Friday. So, till then we continue the strike.
“If after Friday, their feedback does not meet our expectations, then we will continue the strike even after Friday.”
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