PTML: Customs Give Reasons for Disparity in Valuation of Imported Vehicles

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Nigeria Customs Service has explained the reasons why there seems to be a variation in valuation of vehicles and their duties payable at every port terminal, even as it argued that, against arguments of freight forwarders, the service actually has a guideline and uniformity in issuing value to vehicle importers.

In an exclusive chat with DAILY TREND NEWS on Tuesday, spokesman for the biggest vehicle command of Customs; PTML Command, Mr. Muhammed Yakubu said that the speedometer as well as year of manufacture of vehicles are part of conditions to determine duty payable on them.

According to him, the Customs service has uniformity in value when it comes to vehicle importation, he said what an importer gets from Tin Can Island Port is the same thing he would get from PTML Terminal.

Speaking, he said “We have a guideline and a valuation tariff book that tells us what vehicles should pay, it is based on the year of the vehicle. So, there is uniformity when it comes to giving valuation”

“Sometimes, if you have an accidented vehicle, you are entitled to some certain duty rebate, if you have a new vehicle of year 2020 with less than 3,000 speedometer, you must pay your levy on it, but if you have a vehicle of 2020 model with 8,000 speedometer, it doesn’t attract levy”

“The disparity comes from the levy payment which is determined by the speedometer of the vehicle”

“It could also be that the vehicle is a new model but the chassis, air bags have been affected, customs would have to examine it and confirm it is an accidented car, they would do the processing and determine what you have to pay”

“If it is a new brand new vehicle, it would pay the same duty at both ports” Yakubu stated

Our correspondent reports that the Federal Government recently commenced implementation of vehicle tariff slash which saw new vehicles paying levy of 5% as against 35% levy and 35% duty
Imported new vehicles now pay 35% duty and 5% levy.

Regarding Tokunbo vehicles, they pay 35% duty without levy, nothing has been touched in this regard by the government. On commercial vehicles, levy has been reduced to 10% because the government wants to encourage people in importing more commercial vehicles.

In terms of compliance with the policy, the PTML Customs spokesman said Nigerian importers have been enjoying it.

“Just last week, I had somebody that imported a new vehicle that the speedometer was less that 1,000, the second one was having speedometer of 1,200. I encouraged them to pay levy on the car, if you don’t pay your levy, there would be interventions from officers outside the port.
It is encouraging for people to bring in new vehicles into the system”

“The VAT doesn’t come from customs, it comes from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) it was 5% before, but it has now been increased to 7. 5% since last year.
It is collected by customs, but it doesn’t belong to us”

“The vehicle price slash policy started recently, so we cannot start analysing if new vehicle import has increased, we should be able to do the SWOT analysis when it’s three months”

“However based on my knowledge, I know that we have new vehicles coming in, like i just told you of two people that cleared two new vehicles of 2020”

When asked if the Federal Government has resulted in increased importation of new vehicles, the Customs PRO said it is still pretty early to carry out an assessment of the policy.

“For now, I cannot really do an assessment and tell you if there has been an increase in the number of new vehicles coming into the port as a result of the policy, but within a period of three months, we should be able to tell”