By Isaac Anumihe
soon, the drama between the senators and the Customs Comptroller General, Colonel Hameed Ali, will come to a head.
From indications, the GG is determined to call the bluff of the senators following the two deft moves exhibited last week.
First, he refused to appear before the senators in uniform and headed for the courts to stop the senators while launching a code number vehicle duty clearance verification.
The code will enable vehicle owners verify if duty was paid on their vehicles or not so that they can go and pay.
The drama started with the invitation of the Controller General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali, to the Senate Chambers on March 15, 2017. This led to hot arguments between him and the lawmakers.
The vituperative utterances began on March 3, 2017, when Ali ordered vehicle owners who did not pay appropriate customs duty on their vehicles to go to any customs outlet and pay between March 13 and April 12 or face dire consequences.
The Senate had condemned the policy saying that it is anti-people and so directed the Controller General to rescind his decision or reverse the policy outright.
In a statement the following day, Customs insisted that it was going ahead to implement the policy. To make sure his directive was carried to the letter the CG directed the men of the Compliance Team and the Federal Operations Unit to complement officers at the borders.
The logjam that was generated led to the CG’s invitation by the Senators to appear before them on April 15, 2017 and in his service uniform. But in an interview on TVC, a Lagos-based television station, the CG said that he would appear before the senate but not in the Customs uniform.
However, as the stage was set for the CG to appear before the senate on March 15, 2017, he quickly made a u-turn, suspending the policy.
It was, however, learnt that the CG was advised by the president to obey the senators and that he does not want any confrontation between his appointees and the presidency. But as the CG and the lawmakers were throwing tantrums against each other, Nigerians were expressing divergent opinions on the policy.
While some condemned the policy, others hailed it. Those who condemned it posited that the duty should be collected at the border, arguing that if people connived with Customs officers at the border and smuggled their cars into the country, they should be left alone. They insisted that Customs cannot pretend that they do not know anything about it.
Mr Eddy Akwaeze, a car importer said: “My candid opinion is that nothing like that should come to the mind of a reasonable Customs officer. What they have just demonstrated is that they have failed. And if they have failed they should leave the place. How can you aid and abet – collect money and allow the vehicles to go into the society and come back to impound them? he asked.
Another importer who pleaded anonymity said that the society would soon rise against the customs officers who are involved in the stop and search. He cited an instance in Onitsha where customs officials have been rounded up and killed for seizing people’s property unlawfully.
He blamed the Sango-Ota traders for keeping quiet when the customs officials were invading their shops and warehouses saying that they would have lynched one of them to serve as a deterrence to others.
However, Chairman, Seme Border chapter of Nigerian Association of Customs Licensed Agents (ANLCA), Birisiyu Lasis Fanu, disagreed with them, saying that importers are duty-bound to pay duty on dutiable items. He said that customs officers have the constitutional powers to impound any vehicles whose duty was not paid.
“We are agents at the border and any car that comes straight to the border will pay duties. We are cork sure that we collect duty on those vehicles that come to the border but the recalcitrant smugglers don’t even want to pay anything at all. They pass through the bush. They will not come to the border. Those cars that enter through that means should be seized,” the agent pointed out.
Corroborating Fanu’s position, National Co-ordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Chief Patrick Osita Chukwu, said that while the new cars should be made to pay their duty, it is unreasonable for Customs to ask somebody to pay duty on vehicles he has used for 15, 20 years.
“They should come forward to pay their duty. That money is not Customs money. They should just go ahead to pay duty. But let them leave the old ones. It is unreasonable for Customs to ask somebody to pay duty on vehicles he has used for 15, 20 years,” he said.
Equally, a maritime industry watcher and commentator, Mr Ismail Aniemu wondered why people should make a fuss about the policy. For him, tax collectors are never popular in many society and Nigeria is not an exception. He said that tax evasion is a norm in Nigeria and anybody that wants to go against such a norm is never popular. So, he saw nothing wrong in the policy and urged Nigerians to support the policy.
“In fact, it is a grace. Why I say it is a grace in Nigeria is because the normal thing for the vehicle is to be seized and the owner of the vehicle prosecuted. The law provides that Customs has the right to search anywhere, any ship, any vehicle, any warehouse without warrant. It is a provision in the Customs Management Act. And if you are travelling in this country and Customs stops you to provide the proof of duty payment of vehicle you are driving and you cannot show the proof, they have the right to seize the vehicle. For Customs to now say anybody driving any vehicle he is not sure the duty was paid should come to their office and pay duty at a discounted rate, is a grace and it must not be abused,” he insisted.
But motor vehicle dealers under the auspices of the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), have flayed those against the policy. They advised Nigerians whose cars have no proof of duty payments to take advantage of the opportunity to pay up as that will reduce the problem they are having in the market.
National president of the association, Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, said that his organisation established a rapport with the Customs management to save them from losses, arrests and embarrassments occasioned by default in vehicle duty payment.
Adedoyin added that some of his members were in the past arrested and detained by the police after they sold vehicles that were eventually seized by Customs for non-payment of duty.
He said some of the vehicles, for which his members were arrested, belonged to Nigerians living overseas and some importers who only use his members’ sales outlets to market and sell them off.
According to him, months after such sales were made the buyers will come with police officers to arrest car dealers for selling vehicles without genuine papers. Buyer of the vehicle, with the support of the police, will then be demanding refunds of total amount spent in buying the vehicle whose money the car dealer had remitted to the actual owners after collecting a paltry commission of less than 5 per cent of the sum.
“When buyers purchase a car from a dealer and it gets seized by customs some months after it was sold, the buyers come to us with police and demand refund. Some of our members have been detained over issues like this.
“In some cases, you make less than N200,000 profit for selling a vehicle belonging to someone abroad and you give about N8 million to the owner for the sales. When the trouble begins, the buyer will be demanding complete N8 million or N10 million from the vehicle dealer,” he said.