With the further depreciation of the naira against the dollar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the exchange rate for calculating import duty at the nation’s seaport to N1,457.014/$ from N1,414.599/$.
The new Customs FX duty rate represents about a 3 percent increase on the rate of each dollar required to clear goods from the port, according to the information obtained from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service.
It also represents an increase of N42.415 in the exchange rate of each dollar needed to clear goods at the port.
What this means is that importers opening Form M today will require more money to pay import duties than those who opened Form M on Friday, May 10 with a lower exchange rate for cargo clearing.
BusinessDay reports that the naira on Monday depreciated more against the dollar as it traded at N1,515 on the parallel market.
This represents 2.97 percent (N45/$1) depreciation against the US dollar when compared to the exchange rate of N1,470 on Friday.
Also, the naira fell flat by 0.45 percent as the dollar was quoted at N1,466.31, weaker than N1,459.73 quoted on Thursday at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM),
Analysts expect the naira to extend its depreciation against the dollar to this week unless there is an intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The infamous tweaking of import duty rates is destabilising importers and further sapping their investments dry,” Jonathan Nicole, former president of the Shippers Association of Lagos State.
In advanced countries, Nicloe said, there are standard windows for calculating import duties, and are not subjected to tweaking at will by government authorities.
