The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) says Nigerian ports may soon witnessed serious upheaval that could lead to congestion of vehicle clearance in the ports due to the alleged high and outrageous inputs of cost of vehicles imported into Nigeria by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Vice president of ANLCA, Dr. Kayode Farinto, who raised the alarm in a chat with the media over the weekend, said the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) valuation policy introduced for all imported vehicles by the NCS is not helping the nation’s economy as it lacks predictability and capacity to drive revenue collection.
According to Dr. Farrinto, in the past one week clearance of vehicles at the ports has been suspended owing to the outrageous VIN values put out by the Customs.
VIN was recently introduced by the NCS to give uniform and acceptable values to all imported vehicles into Nigeria not minding the port of landing. Before now, vehicles of same year and type often were charged different duties at different ports of entry in Nigeria.
Narrating the difficulties experienced by Frieght Forwarders and Customs Brokers, Dr. Farinto noted that the main purpose of VIN valuation for imported vehicles has been defeated even as thousands of imported vehicles are currently trapped at the seaports.
In his words: “We won’t be tired of informing the Nigerian government what is happening in our industry. In the last one week, our members were unable to clear vehicles from the ports as a result of introduction of VIN by Customs.
“Let me take you memory lane, why should we opt for VIN valuation? You will agree with me that before now, I was one of those that said there was no uniform value on the clearance of vehicles. For example, if you have 2015 Camry in Tin Can, Apapa and PTML, you will never pay the same duty on them and these vehicles are going to the same market.
“This is causing serious unease for our members, it encourages corruption and it is making us not to have predictability. One of the first criteria of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is, there must be predictability in Customs clearance. Hence, we now say okay, give us uniform value or key into that of Ghana system, that is where the issue of VIN came onboard,” Farinto said.
According to the ANLCA Vice President, before implementation of any policy by the NCS, it is expected of them to collaborate with stakeholders especially the licensed Customs brokers, adding that Customs needs to subject their value to public criticism for stakeholders to have their inputs.
He urged the NCS to dialogue with freight fowarders arguing that the valuation criteria of VIN is not helping the economy as it has made the clearance of cargoes particularly vehicles stagnant for many days, leading to accumulation of storage facilities at the nation’s seaports.
“We are now calling on Customs to invite us, subject the values to criticism because you cannot shave our head in our absence. The legal notice 30 talks about rebate, wear and tear.
“In the U.S once a vehicle is purchased for instance in January 1, 2022, and driven from Houston to Texas to far north, it is used, it depreciates, 10% depreciation law comes into effect, same thing everywhere in the whole world. It is a standard thing.
“It is unfortunate in Nigeria now because of the fact that nobody cries out, importers are feeling it. These agents entered into agreement with their importers; collecting bill of lading , charge them before the arrival of the vehicles. The vehicles arrive now, but the agents are unable to clear them because we are introducing VIN valuation.
“We are not saying you should not introduce VIN valuation. What we are saying is that , if you look at the value in the VIN valuation, it is very outrageous. For example, I looked at the system for a MAZDA 2007 vehicle, the system is valuing it at over $5000, and what is the value of 2007 vehicle in the market? You can even view it in the American market.
“Another one, we have an Hunda 2013 that was bought for around $6000 or $7000. If you access the VIN value, it will give you over N2 million as duty and if you convert it to dollars, that is over $15000. These are things killing our economy. Another one is 2009 Hunda, which ordinarily, the system is giving over $6000, meanwhile it was less than $2000 when we were normally clearing it,” he said.
Dr. Farinto insisted that the purpose of embracing the VIN is to make sure it reduces the human to human contact, discourages corruption and becomes uniform, adding that it is only in Nigeria that it is becoming discouraging and frustrating, even as clearing agents are seriously agitating.
“ The VIN should be such that when you clear your vehicle, anywhere within Nigeria, the moment you access it through the VIN nobody queries you on the road, no Customs officer will stop you on the road unnecessarily. But because Customs lacks professionalism, I’m very sure they have not work in tandem with the Tariff and Valuation departments because If they did these things would have been harmonised.” He said.
Recall that freight forwarders have recently protested the VIN valuation policy at the PTML command, calling for a review or revert to manual valuation.
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