of dealers and agents are on the verge of losing their livelihoods, investigations by The Guardian have revealed.
This was greeted with controversy as agents protested outrageous increases in tariffs due to inaccurate data and the valuation process. It was also learnt that for a 2007 or 2009 vehicle under the non-standard chassis vehicles, the duties are different and not uniform. According to clearing agents, once they apply for duty on such vehicles on the VIN system, it gives an error outcome, which means they have to apply to the Customs Area Controller of the command for value identification.
“If you want to go for valuation assessment, cars go for around N7,000 to N10,000, it depends on the value you are bringing forth. If you want a lesser value, you have to pay more than that,” Fatomilola said. The Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, during a tour of customs formations in Lagos last week said the ‘Standard VIN and the non-standard VIN’ as being operated by the service is illegal and that the lawmakers might scrap the platform.
“This high valuation of vehicles is a result of NCS trying to meet the target given it, also it is trying to plug the gap left by the 20 per cent duty drop. “We have a situation where two different types of evaluations are used on the same type of vehicle and you find a situation where, for example, you import a vehicle of N1 million and you are supposed to clear it with N500,000. But because of valuation, you are now clearing the vehicle with N2.5 million.
“The Corolla we used to sell N1.6 million is now N2.7 million. Same with other vehicles. Everything has escalated. And since vehicles depreciate, dealers decide to sell and get their money and stop car business to go look for other businesses to invest in.”