The Nigeria Customs Service had arranged a town hall meeting with stakeholders in Lagos to look into complaints made by freight forwarder and Customs license agent over the newly introduced Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) valuation.
The Customs stated this indication during a town hall stakeholders meeting which held at the Customs Training College, Ikeja, Lagos.
The Customs leadership team which presided over the meeting with freight forwarders includes: ACG Tariff and Trade, Hamza Gumi, ACG ICT and Modernization, Saidu Galadima and ACG Zone A Headquarters, Modupe Aremu.
Addressing the media after the Stakeholders meeting, ACG Aremu, explained that the Customs is going to modify the complaints of the freight agents to arrive at a conclusive arrangement for the VIN.
ACG Aremu who represented the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) assured stakeholders that the Customs Management Team will meet Wednesday to review the complaints by the Licensed Customs Agents and Freight Forwarders over newly introduced Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) valuation that has resulted in a strike action across ports in Lagos, and disclosed that a solution to the issue will be arrived at soon.
In Aremu’s words: “We are going to modify their complaints going forward. The modification will take care of the complaints of the clearing agents as regards VIN.
“The agents were actually trained ahead of the implementation of the VIN valuation. That was why we were not expecting this kind of response from them when we began the implementation.
“Due to the complaints the agents gave today, we are going back to the drawing board to modify all the issues that they raised. Hopefully, very soon we will get back to them on the outcome of the modification. VIN has come to stay, it cannot be suspended.”
“We are meeting on this matter and I’m sure we will come up with a solution that will be a win-win for Customs and freight agents. The agents were actually trained ahead of the implementation of the VIN valuation. That was why we were not expecting this kind of response from them when we began the VIN implementation,” she said.
The Zone A Coordinator, appealed to freight agents to make efforts to attend future stakeholders engagements ahead of new policy introduction, opining that several meetings were held on the VIN valuation previously but freight agents sent their workers who couldn’t make worthwhile deliberations on the issue.
Also speaking, ACG Aliyu Galadima Saidu, Assistant Comptroller General in Charge of ICT and Modernisation disclosed that efforts will be made to bring training closer to customs agents.
ACG Saidu assured that efforts will be made to bring training closer to customs agents, noting that the centralized trainings organized by Customs headquarters recently has limited the participation and impact of the trainings.
Saidu added that trade in an ICT driven era requires sincerity and integrity as according to him, some persons were found to change VIN figures of their imported used vehicles so as to be processed as non standard VIN to evade complete duty payments.
In the same vein, a Chieftain of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Chief Taiye Oyeniyi decried the high cost of vehicle clearance using VIN Valuation urging management of the service to suspend the implementation of VIN valuation until an ideal process is structured to capture duties for used vehicles.
Chief Oyeniyi advised NCS to reconsider it’s defunct Customs Consultative Forum as a way to bridge communication gap between the NCS and agents.
According to Oyeniyi, the protests on VIN valuation was a result of the high figures in the new e-system which saw Customs duties of some vehicles become higher that the cost price and freight of the vehicles.
The ANLCA stalwart called on the striking agents to allow members of customs management team present at the Lagos meeting to take their complaints to Abuja for consideration at the Customs managerial meeting on Wednesday.
To address this challenge, he said further trainings will be decentralized to area commands to be organised by Customs Area Controllers.
“Some persons were found to change VIN figures of their imported used vehicles so as to be processed as non standard VIN to evade complete duty payments,” he said.
Also speaking, a former President of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Chief Eugene Nweke accused Customs of implementing the new system without any notice for stakeholders to prepare for it.
The regime addresses the duty variation and alleged non uniformity said to have existed before now. It also uses artificial intelligence relying on supplied data by the trader and other third parties to evaluate and decide on duty payments without human interference
On his part, President General, Berger Motors Dealers Association, Chief Metchie Nnadigwe promised to support freight agents in order to addressing issues of VIN valuation policy.
Also speaking, Mr Abayomi Duyile quarried how customs arrived at the data it has inputed into the VIN Valuation system to determine value of vehicles.
“We have found out that the Customs itself has contravened its laws by not putting into consideration the legal notice 30 that gave us up to 50% rebate on used vehicles.
“How can say you are using artificial intelligence to determine prices of vehicles coming from Canada, United States, Europe and Asia?
“A venza 2013 that has market price of N7million, by the time we checked the customs VIN Valuation system, it was giving us $21,880USD
The CIF was N8.9 Nigerian price”
“We have found a lot of flaws in the system and we are rejecting it in its totality” he said.
Meanwhile, the freight forwarders have vowed to continue the protest at the Nigerian Ports of PTML Terminal and the Tin Can Island Port until they hear feedbacks from the customs management.
The freight forwarders protest commenced since Monday last week and it has so far crippled economic and commercial activities at the port.