Two months after the enforcement of the 35 percent duty on the fairly used cars imported into the country, Licensed customs agents as well as importers have continued to lick their wounds over the new policy.
Respondents who spoke to Primetime Reporters on the matter said that the policy has dwindled the fortunes of the licensed customs agents who are now sitting idle at the ports on daily basis due to the fact that importers whose vehicles were trapped at the ports had refused to come forward to take delivery of them.
According to them, others have started diverting their vehicles to ports of the neighbouring countries with more friendly charges to clear them there with the intent of bringing them into the country thereafter.
Speaking on the matter, the National Secretary, Customs Service Relations, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) headquarters, Mr. Ben Nwokeka opined that although the policy was a government policy, it was a very unpopular policy going by the economic situation in country today.
Nwokeka observed that since the introduction of the policy, the rate of vehicles as well as transport had gone up tremendously thus bringing the activities in the port to near collapse.
According to him,” the after effect is being felt by both the importers and agents because automatically, it has raised the rate of vehicles,transport and other things. So, it is not a very popular policy, all the same, people are struggling to make ends meet with it”.
“There has been a slow down of activities here as a matter of fact. If you do come around here, you can see, look around here now, everywhere is like a grave yard. There has been a slow down of activities and we fear it may worsen with time”.
He however foreclosed the chances of any improvement in the situation in the near future as according to him, so many people had abandoned their vehicles at the ports.
He disclosed that a walk into the enforcement unit, one would see so many vehicles ceased from people who were trying to cut corners because of their inability to meet up with the new duty as well as others out rightly abandoned by their owners due to lack of funds to clear them out of the port.
“It is just worsening the already worst situation because now we are talking of 35 percent and we are seeing the effect, by the time it gets to 70 percent, what do you do? It means that the hardship will double. Everything we are witnessing for now will be doubled. That is what it will translate to”, he stated.
Another licensed customs agent, Deacon Mike Okelue disclosed that with the policy, many importers had started diverting their vehicles to Cotonou with the aim of clearing them there and there after push them into the country through the border stations.
Okelue while hinting that the government was loosing money that would have accrued to it in form of revenue by the day as a result of the policy, however said that the agents were the worst hit as some of them had collected money from the importers with the old duty to clear the goods out of the port only to be caught in the web by the new policy.
He lamented that the development which had force some agents to cut corners in a bid to survive, had given room to seizure of the vehicles by the operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service who in turn impound these vehicles and sell them auction to their cronies and friends.
“You can see, the port is very dry now and many importers abroad have called me and asked me about the policy and I told them that the policy is in place now. So, they have stopped bringing their vehicles here and they have asked me that I should go and get an office in Cotonou so that their vehicles can come through that side. They don’t bring vehicles here anymore”.
“There is a lot of congestion in the car park. You can see, look at that place (pointing towards the car park),you can see cars that are parked there. Go to Ports and Cargo now, you want to go for examination,there is no space to go for examination. There is congestion, the whole time they are wasting because some people are running around the bank to see if they can borrow money to clear their consignments”, Okelue said.
Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report, the Customs Public Relations Officer, Tincan island Command, Mr. Chris Osunkwo was not readily available for comments.
