Members of the five accredidated freight forwarding associations have agreed to resume the clearing of general cargo and containers from Tin-Can Island Port while vehicle clearance would remain on hold till further notice.
This development follows the intervention of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) on Friday during a meeting with the representatives of the protesting freight forwarding groups.
Emmanuel Jime, the executive secretary of the NSC, who hosted the group in the Council’s headquarters in Lagos, described the actions of the freight forwarding groups as a patriotic move, which is for the benefit of both the consumers and the economy at large.
According to him, the protest was not against the newly introduced Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) valuation policy but against the methodology of its implementation.
Jime however called on the freight forwarding groups to step down action by calling off the strike to enable the Council to champion further negotiations on the issue with the management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
He assured the group that the Council will escalate the matter till both parties reached an understanding.
Abdullazeez Babatunde, national secretary of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), said that the new VIN policy does not put into consideration the wear and tear as well as the depression value on vehicles when generating Customs duties to be paid on imported cars.
According to him, Customs has refused to openly address the issue associated with the new policy after admitting to the fact that there is error associated with the policy.
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Citing example, Babatunde said that a 2012 model of car, which is not supposed to have market value of more than N4million now has about N12 million as value with the new valuation system of Customs, which is outrageous.
On that basis, Babatunde insisted that the freight forwarding groups will not call off the protest as requested by the Council.
On his Segun Musa, deputy national president of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), solicited for the Customs to go back to manual valuation of vehicles till the issues associated with the new policy are resolved.
“We will allow for the operations and clearance of general cargo but RoRo clearance, which involves clearing vehicles, will still be on hold till we hear from the Shippers’ Council on the outcome of the discussion with Customs,” Musa said.
He said that rather than encourage trade facilitation, the new policy would rather encourage smuggling in of vehicles by importers who want to run away from paying the new ‘outrageous duties’ imposed on imported cars to the government through Customs.
According to him, this will push importers away, companies will shut down while jobs would be lost, and the government will be using limited resources to buy guns to fight smugglers.
Recall that clearing of imported vehicles from the roll-on roll-off terminals at the Tin-Can Island Port has since Monday been put on hold as all registered freight forwarding associations operating at the Lagos Port withdrew their services over the issues associated with the newly introduced VIN Valuation System by NCS.
According to them, the new Customs valuation system has been generating wrong and outrageous values for imported cars, thereby making it difficult for dealers to pay.
The associations that jointly embarked on strike include the ANLCA, NAGAFF, National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN) and among others.
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