The Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON) on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to reduce import duty rates on fairly used cars to 20 per cent.
The National President of the association, Ajibola Adedoyin, made the appeal at a news conference in Abuja on the ongoing seizure of vehicles without import duty in various car dealers’ shops across the nation.
He said that the current rate being charged by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for import duty was huge as it was currently making the cost of imported vehicles very expensive.
He said currently, Customs was charging 35 per cent for the importation cost of salon cars while for sport utility cars and other luxury vehicles, about 70 per cent of the value of the car was being charged as import duty.
He said that this was in addition to other charges imposed on the vehicles before they were finally cleared at the port of entry.
Adedoyin said about 400 cars worth over N1.7 billion had so far been seized by NCS.
To this end, he said the association was appealing to the Comptroller General of Customs, to give its members more time to pay import duties for the cars they had earlier imported without paying the required charges.
This, he said, would provide car dealers as well as other Nigerians with another opportunity to pay the required import duty on their vehicles.
He said unlike the last exercise that lasted for six weeks out of which two weeks were lost to technical hitches, the NCS should give the Association additional three months grace period.
He said that the current rate being charged by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for import duty was huge as it was currently making the cost of imported vehicles very expensive.
He said currently, Customs was charging 35 per cent for the importation cost of salon cars while for sport utility cars and other luxury vehicles, about 70 per cent of the value of the car was being charged as import duty.
He said that this was in addition to other charges imposed on the vehicles before they were finally cleared at the port of entry.
Adedoyin said about 400 cars worth over N1.7 billion had so far been seized by NCS.
To this end, he said the association was appealing to the Comptroller General of Customs, to give its members more time to pay import duties for the cars they had earlier imported without paying the required charges.
This, he said, would provide car dealers as well as other Nigerians with another opportunity to pay the required import duty on their vehicles.
He said unlike the last exercise that lasted for six weeks out of which two weeks were lost to technical hitches, the NCS should give the Association additional three months grace period.