The Association of the Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has warned that the unprecedented spiral effect of the 15 per cent National Automotive Council (NAC) policy on imported used vehicles will begin to manifest in the next quarter.
The warning comes as the acting President of ANLCA, Kayode Farinto, said the cost of clearing used vehicles has skyrocketed.
Speaking during the association’s National Executive Council’s (NEC) meeting in Lagos, Farinto said though the ECOWAS Tariff provision empowers member nations to introduce Import Adjustment Tax (IAT), the policy ought to apply to commodities and products manufactured locally.
He said: “This tax is meant to protect local manufacturers. The question, which is yet to be answered, is whether the Nigerian Government manufactures used vehicles locally.
“The Acts No. 6 of 2014 is very explicit on the introduction of National Automobile Council levy on fully built imported new vehicles. We woke up to see that Federal Government migrate to the ECOWAS Tariff, which states that for raw materials the rate of duty should be five per cent, semi-finished products 10 per cent, while used vehicles should attract 20 per cent
“And government realised that it must introduce additional charges on imported used vehicles, now slammed 15 per cent on all used vehicles and tagged it NAC levy. When the government saw that it was obvious that it could not defend this, it was changed to a 15 per cent levy.
“The spiral effect of this levy is unprecedented as clearing of used vehicles has skyrocketed negatively and its spiral effect will begin to manifest in the next quarter of 2022.”
Mr Farinto stated that lots of efforts have been made to solve these problems, with a visit to the National Assembly and the Federal Ministry of Finance to make the Executive arm of government see the reason to ameliorate the suffering of the masses, by reducing this levy to five per cent, if it will not be scrapped outright.
He said the Council for the Regulations of Freight Forwarding (CRFFN) has directed the Registrar to engage the Federal Ministry of Finance on the issue as a matter of urgency to ensure the suspension of the NAC levy.
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