The Nigeria Customs Service has accused valuation officers on imported vehicles at various commands of failing to follow the procedure for examining, valuing, and releasing used cars imported from Nigeria.
This was stated in a circular titled ‘Re Conduct of Examination and Release of Used Vehicles’ signed by the Assistant Comptroller General, Tariff and Trade, C.K Niagwan, and dated August 24.
The service stated in the circular that imported vehicles should be referred to valuation seats to verify the trim of the imported vehicle and assign the appropriate value, rather than applying the base value.
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“It has been observed with great concern that examination and valuation officers are not complying with the procedure for examination, valuation, and release of used vehicles,” according to the circular. To avoid confusion, after examination, all used vehicles must be referred to the valuation seat to verify the trim of the imported vehicle and assign the appropriate value, rather than applying the base value. As a result of the foregoing, you are requested to re-orient all examination and valuation officers of this procedure in order to avoid further revenue loss. Maintain strict compliance.”
In response, licensed customs agents have stated that the new process will cause delays in the clearance of imported vehicles.
According to Remilekun Sikiru, the youth leader of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, the Vehicles Identification Number for clearing imported vehicles is supposed to take care of all of these things.
According to Remilekun, the Chief Executive Officer of Sikremstar Logistics Limited, the new process will make clearing imported used cars take longer.
“Normally, the VIN process is designed to include all artificial intelligence, such as trim, engine capacity, and so on, but this is not the case in Nigeria.” This new process is analogous to reintroducing or reintroducing the old method of clearance, which I believe is contrary to the process of trade facilitation. And, without a doubt, by going through this process, jobs will take an extra 2-3 days to process, allowing for human interference and extortion. It will also accrue a lot of demurrage, which begs the question of who will pay the demurrage. Why don’t we do the right thing and enter all of these chassis into the promised VIN valuation? We’ve been clamoring for this for a long time. As a result of the government’s harsh policies, imports have dropped by up to 70%, and many freight forwarders, particularly young people, have stopped coming to work. NCS should conduct a thorough review of this because it will exacerbate the process of trade facilitation.
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ANLCA chieftain Babatunde Mukaila also spoke, saying, “We believe it is another ploy by customs to discredit the VIN platform.” If your valuation officers are not doing the right thing, you should notify them and then wipe them back to line instead of returning us to Egypt, which we will not do. We hope that with this reaction, Customs will reconsider, because we will not return to Egypt with their manual system.” He came to a conclusion.
