The Command Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service PTML Area Command, Mr. Steve Okonmah has described as unpatriotic those who were working against the success of the Federal government’s auto policy.
Okonmah who was reacting on the backdrop of insinuations in some quarters that the auto policy was responsible for the low level of vehicle import into the country since January, 2015 opined that those who were against the policy should understand that the policy was the Federal Government’s way of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor in the country as obtained in the United States of America and other advanced countries of the world.
He wondered why the policy would still be an issue this year as according to him, the same policy that operated in the country last year was the same policy that the Federal Government was still working with this year adding that there had never been any variation whatsoever.
“This issue of 35% was as early as February/March last year and for vehicles that are new, that are less than 3,000 kilometers then it has to pay 35% levy, new vehicle is an issue of last year too. So, this year, there is no variation in that policy. So, how will it be a contributing factor to importation not coming again?”
“And let me tell you one other thing, except we all want to deceive ourselves because Nigerians are not patriotic, if you are patriotic, even in America, Obama said that the rich men should pay higher tax while the poor ones should pay lower tax. If you can afford 2014/2015 vehicle, is it the levy you cannot afford? If you are able to acquire 2014/2015 vehicle, you should be able to pay levy”.
“And it is not a mandatory something by the government, the point is that if you import this kind of vehicles you pay levy. If you know you don’t want to pay levy, you go for the less. I see it as a measure by the government trying to balance the gap between the rich and the poor”, Okonmah said.
Commenting on the 6, 200 given by the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) as the total number of vehicle imported through the Roll in Roll out (RORO) ports in the country, the Command’s spokesman said,” I don’t have the number of vehicles that came in, the people that can have that information is the shipping company which is PTML because on our side, even if we clear, if you release a vehicle from the port today and if it doesn’t go, there is no way we will still have it in our system as having exited or as having passed through and if vehicle is in the terminal, if they don’t give us the document that they are ready to clear it, there is no how we will equally know that the vehicle is in the terminal”.
It will be recalled that STOAN recently decried low level of business in their various terminal fingering the operators of RORO terminals as the worst hit even as it blamed the trend on the auto policy of the federal government.
