Motor dealers to see Buhari over customs duty

Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON)) is considering the option of writing a letter to seek the chance of meeting President Muhammadu Buhari, it was learnt on Friday.

The Nation gathered from its National President, Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, that members of the association are going to plead with Mr. President to offer the motor dealers another opportunity to submit the vehicles in their car parks for duty payment instead of running the risk of seizure by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) .

Speaking with our Abuja correspondent on phone yesterday, he said that should the association secure an appointment with Buhari, the delegates would table the requests it made in a press conference at Abuja in November.

He told The Nation that “We are still trying to follow up to see if we get a good response. It is to take a step further to write the Presidency to see if we will be able to meet him and interact with him and tell him the need to give us that window.

“This is because at the same time we all know that the same window we are asking for, is for cars that are already in here and it not as if we are just going to bring them.

“And instead of the chasing about, we are going to coordinate to make sure that our members bring the cars and pay for the duties. Without any stress, the government is going to realize a lot of money from it.”

The association had in November requested the NCS to among other things realize that the six weeks ultimatum it got to pay duty on already imported vehicles in the car park last year was to short.

It insisted that the short notice had culminated in the inability of the dealers to meet up with the payment and later resulted in the endless regular onslaught on their business and seizures of their 400 vehicles worth N1.7billion.

The AMDON urged the Federal Government to reduce the Duty Pay value on vehicles from 35 to 20 per cent.

The dealers had with one voice condemned the National Automative Policy that its implementation resulted in the issues that they are now grappling to overcome.

Stressing that the window would aid the NCS in its revenue drive for 2018 budget, he said if government partners with the association, it would ensure that duties are paid for cars that are already in the country.

He added that “we will also make sure that any other one that is coming in pays the required duty to the government. I can assure you that if this is done, it (Nigeria Customs Service) might even surpass that revenue that it is expecting. ”

Adedoyin also noted that the partnership would boost employment generation since the dealers, according to him, employ more people than the Federal Government.”

(The Nation)