Clearing and exiting imported vehicles from roll-on roll-off terminals at the Tin-Can Island Port have been very difficult in the past week following the breakdown of server of the National Vehicle Registry (VReg) platform.
Given the delay, car dealers are now compelled to pay storage charges to terminal operators for not taking delivery of their cars as and when due.
Onome Monije, public relations officer of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tin-Can Island chapter, told DailyTrend Online that agents have been finding it very difficult to access the Vreg’s platform in the last one week due to server breakdown.
According to her, vehicles at the terminals have been attracting huge storage charges from terminal operators.
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“The Vreg is for all consignment with chassis/serial number and it is mandatory for car importers and their agents to register with Vreg before they can proceed to Customs portal for duty assessment and payment. The Vreg has since its establishment, been integrated with Customs platform,” she explained.
Continuing, Monije said that agents stay awake into the middle of the night searching for networks, and sometimes it comes up between 2 am and 3 am.
The VREG was established by the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in collaboration with Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in April 2020 to curb import duty evasion and smuggling of cars into Nigeria.
Since then, VREG became mandatory for the clearing vehicles that are imported into the country.
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