The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is set to commence implementation of tariff reduction on vehicles before the end of this month.
The NCS Comptroller-General, Hameed Ali, made the announcement at the flagship News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja on Sunday.
He said that the commencement of the policy followed the transmission of the directive to the Customs service by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
The downward review of excise duty on tractors and motor vehicles for transportation was one of the provisions in the Finance Bill, 2020 signed in to law by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year.
The import duty of tractors and motor vehicles for the transportation of goods was slashed from 35 percent to 10 percent.
Ali stated, “The Act has been transmitted to us. We received the minister’s mandate this week, to start working on it, although we have to develop certain regulations and measures on how we intend to implement the law.
“We have to change our codes to fit into the new law. You know that commercial vehicles levy is the only levy that has been reduced from 35 per cent to five per cent.
“So, we have to change the codes to fit into the new law and we hope we’ll finish that in two days and the minister will have to look at it and agree that yes that is what we should do.
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“I hope not too long from now, by next week or next two weeks, this law will come into effect. We will circulate it to our own commands to begin to operate.”
The customs boss noted that the new law would help the country to have vehicles meant for transportation with reduced duty for the benefit of Nigerians.
However, automobile assembling companies have kicked against the new tariff, saying it would destroy their investments.
The Chairman, PAN Nigeria Limited, Ahmed Aliyu; Chairman, NAMA, Tokunbo Aromolaran, and other stakeholders alleged that the Customs was out to intentionally kill Nigeria’s automobile industry,
They described the tariff reduction as policy somersault and that Nigeria would soon become a dumping ground for all kinds of vehicles.
This, according to them, will lead to massive lay-off of workers and will further worsen the economic situation in the country.
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