The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has approved a one-month grace period to enable Customs Licensed Agents to clear the backlog of vehicles held up in the ports during the two weeks of strike actions by registered freight forwarders.
According to a circular with the number NCS/T&T/ACG/008/S.100/VOL111 and dated March 7, 2022, which was sighted by BusinessDay, the decision was a fallout of the recent Customs and Stakeholders town hall meeting held in Lagos on the controversial vehicle identification number VIN-Valuation.
The circular, which was signed by Hamza Gummi, assistant comptroller general of Customs in charge of Tariff and Trade, stated that the grace period will take effect from Tuesday March 8, 2022.
Gummi however directed all commands to ensure the uniform application of rebates for all vehicles using the correct values for assessments.
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According to Gummi, Customs will review the VIN-Valuation to ensure that stakeholders’ concerns are represented in the procedure.
“The VIN-Valuation protocol is still in operation as reviews and updates are being captured in our system to reflect these adjustments,” the circular reads in parts.
The circular further stated that Area Controllers are expected to monitor the transition period in order to ensure that manual assessments are in full compliance with extant laws.
Recall that for the past two weeks, starting from Monday, February 20, 2022, freight forwarders under the auspices of the five registered freight forwarding associations crippled business activities at the Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) terminals at the Tin-Can Island Ports in protest of the newly introduced VIN-Valuation System of Customs.
They said that the new valuation system generates wrong and outrageous values for imported cars, thereby imposing high costs on auto dealers.
To resolve the controversy with the new VIN-Valuation, Customs organised a stakeholders’ meeting on Tuesday March 1, 2022 where the Service promised to look into the issues raised by stakeholders.
