Over 8,000 vehicles trapped as NCS, stakeholders meet on VIN valuation system

• Freight forwarders divided on ending industrial action

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) will hold a stakeholders’ meeting today to resolve shutdown of the nation’s busiest seaports by freight forwarders, who are protesting anomalies of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Valuation System.

The move followed concerns over revenue losses and implication for the economy. The meeting, according to NCS National Public Relations Officer, Timi Bomodi, will hold at Customs Training College, Ikeja, Lagos.

Bomodi told The Guardian via telephone that the meeting aimed to ensure importers, their agents, and the economy did not suffer further losses. But some freight forwarding associations have vowed to continue the action until their demands are met.

Already, over 8,000 vehicles have been trapped at seaports since the protest began, as freight forwarders blocked the Tin Can Port gate.
It was learnt that customs officers at the Tin Can command were not allowed to access their offices.

The freight forwarding associations had embarked on a protest at the Tin Can Island port and PTML Terminal last week over implementation of the VIN Valuation System, which has increased the cost of clearing vehicles.

The protest attracted other stakeholders, as car dealers in Lagos shut down their auto showrooms in support, following directive by
Lagos State Motor Dealers Association.

According to the body, the action, which took effect February 25, was in solidarity with the strike action embarked upon by Nigerian Association of Freight Forwarders and Clearing Agents against the sharp increase in cost of clearing cars at the ports.

Also, the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON) had threatened to engage Customs in a legal battle if it failed to suspend the controversial policy.

The association said it was unfortunate that Customs intentionally decided to avoid the series of letters it wrote, requesting audience with the NCS management.

The association, last Friday, placed all its members in the 36 states of the Federation on notice for a strike action, while warning that Nigerians should prepare to buy cars at exorbitant prices if the VIN Valuation is not suspended, as the high cost of clearing cars would be transferred to end users.

The situation at the Tin Can port, however, was calm last Friday after the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) met with representatives of the freight forwarding associations.

Public Relations Officer, NCS, Tin Can command, Uche Ejesieme, confirmed to The Guardian that there was normalcy at the port on Saturday, but there are uncertainties about what the situation would be today, as the protest could escalate. He said everybody is watchful about the situation to avoid assault by hoodlums who might hijack the protest.

He said, while it is the right of the freight forwarders to protest peaceful and look for ways to address the situation, Customs would use federal powers to enforce normalcy if the situation gets out of hand.

Executive Secretary of NSC, Emmanuel Jime, described the action of the freight forwarding groups as patriotic. However, he called on the groups to call off the strike to enable the Council champion further negotiations with the management of the NCS.

ALSO, the chairman sub-committee of the Reconstituted Presidential Task Force on Reform of NCS, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, has said the VIN valuation by NSC contravenes the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) 20 of 2003 based on transaction value method.

Amiwero stated this in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, titled: “The implementation of (VIN) Valuation System by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and its contravention of the Customs And Excise Management Act (amendment) 20 of 2003 based on transaction value.”

Amiwero, who proposed the introduction of General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) Article VII based on transaction value of goods, said adoption of the agreement on the implementation establishes a positive system of Customs valuation, based on the price actually paid or payable for imported goods.

The sub-committee chairman noted that the GATT Article VII, which was domesticated by the Customs and Excise Management Act, was passed by the National Assembly in line with Section 12 of the Nigerian Constitution as the only legal instruments for the treatment, procedure and application of value for imported goods in Nigeria.

He said the valuation method provides for fair and neutral system of valuation conforming to commercial realities and outlaws the use of arbitrary or fictitious value method system of valuation, such as the Brussels Definition of Value (BVD), which is currently imposed by the NCS on all imported goods.