ABUJA: The simmering face-off between Auto dealers in Lagos and the Nigeria Customs may soon blow into a full scale war as the auto dealers seem poised to resist the current trend by some officials of the Nigeria Customs Service to stop cars on the highways, and raid car marts of auto dealers to impound cars they claimed are undervalued at the point of paying customs duties and levy at Nigeria’s borders. Many of the car dealers who spoke with Vanguard Motoring said they have been groaning under this practice of “extortion” by some Customs officials who seem to have official backing from the service headquarters as their complaints have consistently fallen on deaf ears. They further said this extortion has led to many of their colleagues closing shops as the Customs officials have forced them out of business as the demand for payment of “variation of the actual value of the car and bribes come in millions of naira”. But some senior serving Customs officials who spoke with Vanguard Motoring debunked the claims of extortion by car dealers, insisting that service officials, especially the federal operation units, have the right to stop any “ dutiable vehicle on the highway and make them pay the actual duty value”.
According to the Customs officials, most auto dealers deliberately do not pay the actual duty value of cars they bring in, if they even “ pay at all”. Mr Joseph Atta, Nigeria Customs Public Relation Officer, told Vanguard Motoring on phone that Customs officers are empowered by law to stop any vehicle on the highway or invade any car mart to check if the Customs duties and levy are correct. He also said there has been several cases of car dealers who manipulate their vehicle registration process and under-declared the actual cost of their imported vehicles in order to evade paying the actual duties and levy. He further revealed that some importers bring in cars from the Northern borders of the country only to smuggle them to Lagos for registration. An auto dealer who begged not be named because, according to him, his car mart will be raided by Customs officials, told Vanguard Motoring that agreeing on the actual value of imported cars is the bone of contention between Customs Service and auto dealers. According to him: “If you buy a vehicle for $100, 000 and calculated your 35 per cent duty and 35 per cent levy on that cost, which is $70,000, some Customs officials will stop you on the way and tell you that the car you bought for $100, 000 is $170,000, according to computer generated prices.
