…Says directive ill-conceived
The Managing Director, Wealthy Honey Investment Limited, Dr. Kayode Farinto has said that the federal government did not consult well before it came up with the decision to announce the ban on importation of vehicles through the land borders effective January 1, 2017.
Farinto who made this assertion in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos stated that there were issues that needed to be looked into before government would issue outright ban on importation of vehicles through the land borders.
He pointed out that the government should have ascertain the reason for Nigerians preference for importation of vehicles through the land borders than they do through the seaports adding that that would have been a good start.
According to him,” They had taken time to make inquiries and investigations and they had found out that vehicles are cheaper when they comes through the land borders than when they come through the seaports. First, the auto policy, if it is not reviewed, it is only favorable to some classes of people who claimed to be assembling vehicles in Nigeria whereas they are not . So, it is these classes of people that will eventually enjoy this policy if it is implemented.
“What I think government should do is to review the auto policy because it is not masses oriented and the fact that even the government is losing a lot of money, the government is being shortchanged on this issue of auto policy. Let us review it.
“The so-called Nigerian assembled vehicles, are they accessible? Are they affordable and available? These three things, if you look at them, you will know that they are not affordable, they are not accessible and they are not available. And unfortunately, there are some merchants who had succeeded in hoodwinking the federal government to implement this policy to their Favour. What they now do is to bring in fully built vehicles at a zero duty. Ideally, the policy said they should bring in spare parts and some fully built vehicles. So, what they do now is to bring in fully built at zero duty and claim they are assembling in Nigeria and government is losing money and they are smiling to the banks. They must be investigated.
“The government must look into it, how much we have lost in this area and now review the auto policy because there is nothing like Nigerian assembled vehicles. They import these vehicles in Nigeria and tell the federal government that they had assembled those vehicles in Nigeria whereas they did not. So, we are losing money and employment is going in this area. The government must consider this area before it could say okay, we want to ban vehicles from coming in through the land borders”.
He recalled that there was a levy which was placed in new vehicles as a result of the auto policy which according to was 35% levy and 35% duty which he said seemed to punish those that import through the nation’s seaports and was lenient on those that import through the land borders.
“Taking Prado for instance, if you bring in 2015 Prado through the seaports, you may not be able to clear it because eventually, customs may say, go and pay N6 million to N7 million into the federal government’s account, meanwhile, this same 2015 vehicle through Cotonou pay less than N1.5 million as duty before it comes to Nigeria. So, they just walk in.
“Whoever brings in through the seaports will lose a lot of money while others are actually recouping their money through the land borders. This other factor must be looked into. If government is really serious about it, it should review the auto policy, look at how favorable it is, how practicable it is before it could now say it wants to ban vehicles from coming in through the land borders, so also the older ones”, he said.
Farinto who is also the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) pointed out that he had repeatedly called for a uniform value by the Nigeria Customs Service adding that a 2015 Camry in Tincan would pay a difference value as paid on the same model of the vehicle at Apapa and PTML commands even as the same model of vehicle pays a different value which much lower than what the other ones paid at different commands at the seaports.
He said,”You never can blame the importers, they have seen now that they had cried a lot and government is not doing anything about it, so, what they now di is let us look to maximize profit and that is why I cannot blame the Nigerian importers for bringing in their vehicles through the land borders. Government must be seen to be serious.
“And you know that the issue of rice has not really helped us, since they said rice should not come in through the land borders, are they not being smuggled? When they bring them in through the seaports, you give them benchmark, you slam over four dollars per metric ton, that is a lot of money. A metric ton is about 20 bags, you out that some importers who are bringing in these vessels of rice through the seaports end up losing money they collected from the banks and that is why they go bankrupt. When they now come in through Cotonou, they make a lot of money. The government is not serious”.
He averred that if the policy is implemented, the men of the Nigeria Customs Service in all honesty may not achieve the desired result.
“If you are saying that you are going to ban importation of vehicles through the land borders, I laugh because you are going to expose the Nigeria Customs Service personnel to danger. This year, we learnt that 78 officers died, if this ban is implemented, you will be looking at about 300 officers that will die because I know there are people who are non conformists who will bring in these vehicles at all cost through the unapproved routes and who will lose? It is our officers and Nigerians that will lose. So, the government is not serious. Buhari government lacks ideology in the area of economic policy. It is very unfortunate”, he stated.
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