Steve Agbota
THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has come under
fire from maritime stakeholders over a recent court
judgment on the non-payment of duty on personal effects brought into the country.
Stakeholders in the maritime sector also knocked the
Service over the decision to
appeal the ruling, describing
the decision to be an overzealous act that could bring
embarrassment to the country and citizenry.
The NCS was slammed a
fine of N5 million by a Federal High Court in Abuja for
imposing an import duty
of N156, 955.20k on a personal Louis Vuitton laptop
bag. Customs officials had
on June 24, 2019 imposed
the duty payment on an imported laptop bag found in
the luggage owned by one
Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN,
despite his protest that the
bag was for personal use.
The court had ruled that
for duties collected on items
to be considered legal, the officers of the NSC must have
established that the items
are meant for sale, barter or exchange and are not for
personal or household use.
The ruling, which NCS
has vowed to appeal at the
appellate court, has generated backlash from maritime
stakeholders who believe
the service is just being overzealous.
Reacting to the development, the founder of the
National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed
Customs Agents (NCMDLA), Mr. Lucky Amiwero,
said that it was wrong for
the NCS to demand duty on
personal effect, adding that a
person is entitled to personal
and household effect having
spend up to nine month in a
particular country and there
is no clause as to what the
cost of the personal effect
maybe.
He explained: “It is wrong
you don’t pay duty on personal effect but you pay duty
on some of the items that are
not personal effect, once you
have spent up to nine month
in any country, you are entitled to your personal effect you are entitled to your
household and personal effect.
“But if the items are not
personal effect then those
items are dutiable, and there
is nothing like the price is
above normal price once it
is personal effect the items
should be free of duty”.
Also speaking a former
National President of the
National Association of Government Approved Freight
Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr.
Eugene Nweke said that
there have been unnecessary
abuses on the issue of personnel effect, he saying the
judgment is a good way of
ending the nuisance by way
of practice.
Nweke added that there is
need for maritime industry
stakeholders to look at the
application of the ruling as it
affects personal effects that
comes through the seaport.
He urge freight forwarders and maritime industry
stakeholders to go the way
of the court rather than absorbing every decision of the
NCS adding that the ruling
is an eye-opener to the fact
that some issues should be
decided in court.
“We also needs to look at
the application of personal
goods from the seaport, we
need to know to what extentthe judgment also apply to
the seaport? are there goods
that falls under the personal
effect from the seaport that
customs have been collecting duty on, if there is why
should they be collecting
duty on it?
“How come nobody has
sued customs from the seaport in the same way? So for
me I believe for every freight
forwarders the judgment is
a good judgment because
there have been unneces- sary abuses on the issue of
personnel effect, so the judgment is a good way of ending
the nuisance by way of practice.”