Customs announces code number for vehicle duty clearance verification

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali on Tuesday, at a media stakeholders meeting in Abuja, announced a code number for efficient and effective vehicle duty clearance verification.

Ali said the essence of the meeting was to have a roundtable with stakeholders to come up with solution to avoid hardship to Nigerians as regards duty payment on old vehicles and verification.

He said Customs had taken further step to ensure that Nigerians who wanted to verify the authenticity of their Customs duty clearance could do so from the comfort of their homes with the use of their mobile phones.

“For effective and easy Customs duty clearance verification, you can dial or send SMS to 094621597 with your vehicle C-number, the year you paid the duty and the port or location the vehicle came through into the country.

“Immediately all that information are given, in just five minutes, you will get a response whether your vehicle duty clearance is genuine or not,” Ali said.

He said the essence of the numbers was to ensure stress-free verification to motor dealers and vehicle owners.

According to him, for easy traffic flow, the last number, which is 7 in the digits 094621597 can be either changed to 8 or 9, to get response faster with different Customs personnel on duty every point in time.

Ali said Nigerians misunderstood Customs’ intention regarding duty payment on old vehicles, adding that the excise was actually meant for motor dealers.

He added that Customs later decided to give private vehicle owners, who after verification might find out that their vehicles had no genuine duty clearance, to take advantage of the 60 per cent rebate.

…Custom duty verification was to ensure security of vehicles

It has been discovered that a large number of cars stolen from Nigeria are ferried across the borders into the country as imported vehicles without paying duties, as the original owners can no longer know their vehicles again.

Colonel Ali, who disclosed this while answering questions from newsmen, regretted that there was a lot of misconception on the intention of the Customs as they were trying to make the society better.

He disclosed that they were still looking at the policy, as they were still consulting to see how best they could do it without creating hardship or hurting Nigerians.

The Comptroller-General said the issue of vehicle verification came about, following presidential directive to stop importation of vehicle through land borders, as they discovered that apart from losing revenue, the country was also being endangered.

According to him, Lebanese in the neighbouring countries were the sole importers of these vehicles, which were crossed through land borders and they did not pay duties.

The Comptroller-General disclosed that a lot of dangerous drugs had been discovered in vehicles that came through land borders, adding that anybody who would want to import vehicles should do that through Nigerian ports.

He said the police had complained that a lot of cars stolen from this country also found their way back to this country as imported vehicles.

Quoting the extant laws of Customs, the Comptroller-General said for vehicles that were imported into the country not more than seven years, Customs duty must be paid.

“We have the responsibility as law enforcement agencies to ensure that laws of the land are obeyed.  This step we took was not to injure or add hardship to anybody and that is why we slashed it to 60 per cent,” he said.

He said the Customs would not mount roadblocks for verification of Custom duties, as it would be randomly as done before.

The Comptroller-General announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had not granted waiver to any importer since he came to power, but noted that some corrupt Custom officials were still conniving with big shots in the society to cut corners and shortchange the system in the payment of Custom duties.

On the imported 661 pump-action rifles, which were cleared by Customs officials, the Comptroller-General said the importer, the clearing agent and the Customs officers who cleared the containers had all been arrested.

According to him, “we are processing our officers who cleared the container, we have carried out our investigations and handed over the case file to the National Security Adviser, who has equally directed that the suspects and the case file be forwarded to the Director-General of State Security Service (SSS) for further investigations.”

He added that the issue of verification was necessary because it was part of security for vehicle owners in the country.

“Under this government, we want people to learn to pay their necessary dues, but we are not going to be hard as people think, as we regret the hardship,” he said.