Peugeot faults FG’s plan to cut import duties on vehicles 

• Says It Is Injurious To Automobile Plants
• Such Move Poses Higher Risk For PAN Acquirer, Nesbitt

Peugot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Ltd has faulted Federal Government’s plan to reduce import duties and taxes for tractors, buses, and passenger vehicles, noting that it would serve as a disincentive to Nigerian automobile plants and increase unemployment. 

This was also as the firm said such move poses a higher risk for its acquirer, Nesbitt Investment Nigeria Ltd, who is planning to inject over $150m into the automobile industry.  

Chairman of PAN Nigeria, Hon. Ahmed Aliyu Wadada, who stated this in Kaduna, urged the Federal Government to quickly reverse the plan, which aimed at boosting the economy in the wake of COVID-19 and other economic challenges, noting that such a policy would create unemployment problems.

He warned that such policy would further harm the ailing automobile industry and the companies involved in accessories, as well as debilitate the local contents and the steel and petrochemical industries, which are to serve the local automobile plants, which President Muhammadu Buhari is doing everything to revive. 

He said: “We got very disturbing information by the media aide to the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that Federal Government is slashing down import duties and other taxes on tractors, buses, and passenger vehicles. This is of concern to us on behalf of other automobile plants, as the leading automobile plant in Nigeria.

“Federal Government should take a look at the policy and reverse it for the betterment of Nigerians. Such policy somersault is injurious to the survival and development of the automobile industry. Instead of creating employment opportunities, it would create employment problems, due to lower activities by automobile plants.

“What informed government’s position is to cushion the socio-economic problems of Nigeria, but it should not be addressed on a ad-hoc basis measure. Tackling Nigeria’s socio-economic problem should be better done in a more sustainable and permanent way. If you create employment opportunities for the citizenry, it is a more effective and better way of dealing with it. 

“Nesbitt Investment Nigeria Limited recently acquired PAN with a plan to inject $150m within three years. But with such a policy in place, how will PAN survive? And what will be the encouragement for Nesbitt Investment to inject such money when the corridor of importation is wide open and the automobile companies will not be able to compete?…”