Nigerians are at liberty to go to court to challenge this draconian decision of the Nigeria Customs Service. Before looking at the deadline given by the customs, which is also inappropriate, I must say that the entire decision of the agency is faulty and illegal.
Apart from challenging it in court, Nigerians should also challenge it on the streets. Sad as it is, Nigeria does not have a clear cut automobile policy and that is why the customs service is coming up with this draconian decision.
The Nigerian customs should tell us which law gave it the backing to take such a decision. Telling Nigerians to pay duties for vehicles that are already on the roads in the country does not make sense.
Again, the National Assembly should call the agency to order to avoid the confusion this decision will bring to the country. They (customs) cannot compel Nigerians to pay for a sin they did not commit. They must listen to the Senate on this matter.
The head of customs is a retired military man and he does not need to be dictatorial on this matter. Nigerians are already facing economic hell and should not be dragged into things that will choke them the more. The head of customs needs to have the knowledge of the agency he is heading. •Mr. Livingstone Wechie (Deputy Director, Communications and Public Relations, Civil Liberty Organisation, South-South)
Ordinarily, I will not dignify the utterances of the customs boss with a comment. But, I expect members of the National Assembly to be alive to their responsibility by stopping individual members of the executive from issuing verbal laws. Even in a banana republic, there are laws and procedures to be followed in making laws.
Nigerians should not be made to pay for the incompetence of the Nigerian Customs Service. If government wants to improve revenue generation, there are so many ways to go about it. I don’t believe that the customs boss can be a law to himself. I think the lawmakers are taking this thing lightly because it does not affect them directly. We cannot begin to punish Nigerians for no fault of theirs. The customs should put its house in order. •Dr. Junaid Mohammed (Public Affairs Analyst)
I will say yes and no. Yes in the sense that it is proper that owners pay duties for vehicles that are brought into the country for documentation and security purposes. On the other hand, it not appropriate to pay any further duties if the vehicles were properly brought into the country and already cleared by customs. It is left for customs to trace how the vehicles were released to the owners at the ports without the payment of appropriate duty. They should investigate how the vehicles were cleared at the seaports.
Customs should also make it clear that the duty payment they have given deadline for, are fairly used vehicles (tokunbo), not new vehicles because the belief now is that the deadline is for all brand of cars.
The customs website is already giving conflicting information by stating that the deadline is for all vehicles brought into the country. They should differentiate between fairly used and brand new vehicles. Owners of brand new cars have already paid duties on the vehicles before they sell to the end users. In all, the process will help ensure proper documentation of vehicles brought into the country. •Mr. Joshua Brotobor (Head of Operations, Import and Export Services, Max Glory Nigeria Ltd).
The deadline set by customs for payment of duties on vehicles is most inappropriate. It only means that the customs service is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians. Considering the economic recession in the country, it is only an irresponsible organisation that will want to compel people to cough out money at this time. That there are several vehicles in the country without duties only exposes the fact that custom officers are accomplices. It is either a confirmation that our land borders are porous or that the customs officers were compromised to get those vehicles into the country. Instead of disturbing the peace of Nigerians, the Nigerian customs should think of how to do their job thoroughly and make documentation easier and faster. There are encumbrances placed on people’s path, which some of the officers are capitalising on to rip off importers. People prefer importing through land borders because it is faster and easier to pay the appropriate fees and get your duty papers. The customs should put its house in order and stop making life difficult for the people. • Mr. Gideon Nwaokwo (Educationist)
It is wrong and inappropriate. This line of action is stretching their brief too far. The customs service should first tackle the high level of corruption among customs officers at our various ports of entry before seeking to make life miserable for Nigerians. If our customs service was efficient and alive to its responsibilities, these issues would not have arisen in the first place. It is their duty to collect duties and ensure tariff on imported goods are paid at the port of entry and not to start running around chasing innocent individuals.
This is not to say the right duties should not be paid on vehicles brought into Nigeria. There should be synergy between the customs and vehicle registration officers. Is the customs service saying it will withdraw its men from our borders and unleash them on Nigerians? The Federal Government should, as a matter of urgency, look into this issue to avoid making life more difficult for ordinary Nigerians.
If we had affordable vehicles built or assembled within Nigeria this issue would not have come up because people would buy Nigerian made vehicles and there would be no need to pay import duty. We need to be creative in our attempt to diversify the economy but the way the Nigerian customs is going about this is not the right way. •Auwual Musa Rafsanjani (Executive Director, Civil Societies Legislative and Advocacy Centre)
The dead line is not appropriate because it could create an unfriendly business environment and more hardship on Nigerians. The officials of the Nigeria Customs Service were the ones that allowed those goods into Nigeria in the first place. Were they sleeping when the traders brought them in? People even paid some money to avoid being stopped or sanctioned. I think customs should put its house in order and get rid of the bad eggs in the workforce before chasing traders and smugglers. More security agencies are there collaborating with customs; this must be intensified. My advice to government is to put its house in order and remove bad eggs; this issue of corruption is much within customs. By the time we have a renewed customs service, people will naturally comply because those they rely on to cut corners will no more be there for them. Nigerians are facing great hardship, government should avoid compounding their problems. Government should be more proactive in its policies and programmes. We know they want to raise Internally Generated Revenue, but it should not be at the expense of Nigerians. •Chief Adebayo Ifabiyi (CEO, Darabay International Company)
- Compiled by: Success Nwogu, Chukwudi Akasike, Mudiaga Affe and Kamarudeen Ogundele
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