More Nigerians oppose Customs car policy as NLC says it’s ‘logistically callous’

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has described the new policy of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as being logistically callous and targeted at enriching the service’s unscrupulous personnel.

The service recently directed all motor dealers and private vehicle owners, whose customs duty were never paid to do so before April 12, 2017.

But reacting on the directive, the National President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, described the policy as unrealistic in a letter he addressed to the Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd).

The Senate has also expressed unreserved anger over this same policy and have summoned Ali to appear before it on March 15 to explain why he should order all old vehicles to pay 60 per cent rebate for vehicles from 2015 below.

In the NLC letter dated March 7, 2017, Comrade Wabba lambasted the policy, saying that implementing it will only amount to rewarding the complicity of NCS who “contributed in no small way to the present situation through acts of commission or omission.”

Wabba, while maintaining that NLC is not opposed to NCS performing their statutory functions, however asked the service to devise comprehensive response that will deal with the multitudes of challenges facing the service, which include porous borders and extortions.

“Our attention has been drawn to a press statement dated Tuesday, March 2, 2017 and signed by Mr. Joseph Attah, acting Public Relations Officer on behalf of the Comptroller-General directing ‘all motor dealers and private owners’ of vehicles ‘whose customs duty has not been paid, to do so,’ between Monday, March 13 and Wednesday, April 12, 2017, as ‘there will be an aggressive anti-smuggling operation to seize as well as prosecute owners of such smuggled vehicles after the deadline of Wednesday 12th of April 2017.’

“The statement accordingly, directed vehicle owners to Customs zonal offices in Lagos, Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Bauchi to have their vehicles certified, if Customs duty has been paid on them.

“We are all aware that one of the statutory functions of the Nigeria Customs Service is to collect tax on behalf of the government, often times in the form of duty on vehicles. The citizenry, both corporate and non-corporate, as part of their civic and commercial responsibilities, are expected to pay appropriate duties on their vehicles as demanded by the law.

“Sadly, some, out of irresponsibility or sheer criminality, devise ways and means of evading this responsibility. For instance, some take measures as desperate as ‘flying’ their vehicles into the country, thus denying government the needed revenue.

Read also: I’m not employed to wear uniform, Customs boss Ali dares Senate

“We strongly hold the view that those who break the law or seek to break the law should be sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others. The need to enforce tax laws in our country is all the more necessary because of Social Justice and other dwindling revenue sources.

“Our support for the Nigerian Customs Service is therefore not in doubt. If anything, the Customs should be encouraged to do their work well.

“However, we are opposed to this new policy. It is logistically-callous and will create unimaginable chaos and suffering for innocent vehicle end-users.

“It is self-serving and will in the end enrich unscrupulous Customs personnel who contributed in no small to the present situation through acts of commission or omission. It will amount to rewarding their complicity.

“It is common knowledge that duties on imported vehicles are payable at the point of entry. Subjecting vehicle end-users to this kind of trauma, majorly of whom have no hand in the importation of their vehicles, is unfair and unacceptable.

“There is no information on the vehicles to be excluded from this exercise. This presupposes that the owner of a Morris Minor or a Peugeot 404 brought into this country in the 70’s is similarly affected,” the letter read.

RipplesNigeria ….without borders, without fears

Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now