STOAN seeks reduction of car duties to complement ban on land border imports
The leadership of the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), has called on the federal government and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to further encourage use of Nigerian seaports by importers of vehicles after the ban on land borders by reducing duties paid on cars.
In a statement, the group appealed to the federal government to address the issue of high import duty on imported vehicles and the restriction of 41 items from the official foreign exchange window of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as part of measures to attract cargo to the port.
“The ban on importation of vehicles through the land borders will be more effective with a corresponding slash in the tariff of vehicles. The sure way to check smuggling is to accompany the ban with a slash in Customs duty to bring it to par with what obtains in the ports of Cotonou and other ports in the sub-region,” it said.
Before now, industry followers had made it clear that the main discouraging factor in the diversion of cargoes to neighbouring ports include the high duty paid which now stand at 70 per cent.
