By Jude Michael
Automobile Manufacturers and Importers Association in Nnewi, Anambra State, have appealed to the federal government over what they describe as the suffocating cost of customs duties.
The President of the association, Mr Austin Jideofor, said, Tuesday, that the continuous rise in customs duties had been responsible for hardship in the country with its negative consequences on the final consumers.
According to him, his association observed with dismay that government seemed to have directed the customs to continue to increase duties on a monthly basis.
“So, we don’t know if they feel that will solve the economic problems of the country. This regular increase of customs duties brings more hardship to the Nigerian masses. And they won’t listen to us because they want to generate revenue.
“When you clear your goods, you add up your expenses to the price of the goods and the common man continues to bear the brunt. This is why the prices of commodities like rice, cement, other building materials, spare parts, generators, and a whole lot of things have continued to be on the increase.
“In the month of January alone container duties were increased two times. So, we are facing a big challenge as far as importation business is concerned.
“The percentage increase is over thirty because before, we were paying a benchmark of about N4 million and now it has increased from N4 million to over N6 million, almost N9 million as at the time of granting this interview. It’s still increasing, how can you explain that?
“They are using the increase in exchange rate to determine what we pay as duties. We’re in a serious mess.
“You know there are lots of bottlenecks created by Nigerian government. You must pass through those bottlenecks before you clear a container. By the time you finish the rigorous process, you know what it entails.
“It is only abroad that you can go and pay your duties at a bank and your container will be released to you because a scanning machine is already there to say this is what you imported and no rigorous process. It’s not like that in Nigeria here. Even in a neighbouring African country like Cotonou, it’s quite easy there,” he noted.
Continuing, he said, “They call it benchmark. But in Nigeria they will say benchmark and you see agencies involved in the process.
“A situation where the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) has cleared goods abroad for shipment, you go to Apapa and see SON waiting again and say they want to confirm, that is not a welcome development.
“And this SON has their sister agencies throughout the world but when you come back to the wharf here, this same SON will come behaving as if they didn’t clear the goods abroad. You continue to see them at every stage. And by the time you finish paying all these duties, they are transferred to the final consumers who bear the brunt,” he said.
The importer noted that transporters who conveyed the imported goods to their destinations used fuel or gas based on the prevailing pump prices, which, he said, had been on the high side, thereby increasing the prices of goods.”
He disclosed that there were about 78 customs checkpoints from Lagos to Anambra State and 16 of them from Onee to Nnewi, saying that drivers would be paying as they got to the checkpoints leading to huge expenses.
Jideofor therefore urged the government to look into the issue of numerous checkpoints with a view to removing them, since the appropriate officials, according to him, had cleared their goods at the wharf and their imported goods were not contraband.
“We’re still running the same type of government and nobody tries to copy what obtains abroad. Who will be our Messiah?
“Look at the exchange rate which was N650 per dollar in the last (Buhari’s) administration and we were crying. Look at it now getting above N1,500 per dollar. How can we solve this problem?
“A motorcycle tyre last year was around N9,000 per one but now as I’m talking to you, the price is N19,000 per one. That’s how the prices of other things are also increasing.
“Since we do not import contraband goods, let them give us a benchmark so that once we pay, we carry our goods. This system is corrupt, “he lamented.
Jideofor appealed to President Tinubu to look into what he called outrageous increase in container duties, which, he said, had been contributing to hardship across Nigeria.
He said the increase in the price of dollars should not determine the increase in import duties, insisting that import duties should not be increased based on the rise of dollars.
“As soon as Mr President orders a halt to the increase in import duties, hardship will drop.
“Regulators are looking at the exchange rate. Nigeria is the owner of the wharf. Before now some people were going to Cotonuo to clear their goods. We are jubilating that our refineries will soon start functioning so that the prices of petroleum products will go down.
“But the same thing will continue to happen if the regulators look at the price of dollar to fix the patroleum products prices.
“I traveled to Iran not long ago and a friend of mine, a citizen of that country, told me that he was entitled to 50 litres of fuel every day because they were owners of the oil. What about Nigeria? Nigeria owns oil and they should follow the Iran example,” he concluded.
