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Govt Lifts Ban on Importation of Luxury Items

Years after the Obasanjo administration banned the importation of luxury items,his successor, Umar Yar'Adua may have opened the flood gate for their return.

Lateef Ibrahim

Although the list will formally be published on Friday, it was gathered that they include rice, tyre, natural and artificial flowers, frozen foods, fresh and dried fruits, bottle waters and wheat flour. Others are beer, selected drugs, body creams, cassava, maize, wheel barrows, furniture, hollow glass bottles, used vehicles above eight years, fully built and Completely Knocked Down (CDK) bicycles and bagged cement among others.

It was unclear which of the43 items will be de-listed, but already the Federal Government was forced to lift the blanket ban on rice importation in the first quarter of the year in the height of global food crisis. Also, the two main tyre manufactures, Michelin and Dunlop are winding up operations in Nigeria. Yar'Adua gave approval for the reduction in the number of item on the import prohibitionlist, drastic reduction in excise duties paid on luxury goods and e-payment for all transactions involving the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) yesterday.

With the Presidential nod, the items and goods on the prohibition list will remain only 26. The Comptroller-General, Nigerian Customs Services, Alhaji Hamman Ahmed disclosed this yesterday Abuja while playing host to leaders of the Abuja Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). Alhaji Ahmed told the Malachy Uzendu-led council that beginning from October 1, all transactions and payments for Customs services would henceforth be done through online. According to him, the NCS was no longer interested in seeing physical receipts from banks.

He said: "This morning (yesterday), I received the new tariff that has been approved by Mr. President. The list of prohibition has been drastically reduced. We had about 43 items under import prohibition, now they have been reduced to 26 so that Nigerians would not try to beat the system. The rate of duty has also been drastically reduced. The maximum rate of duty now is 35 percent and the minimumis zero. Most of these 35 percent duty rates are luxury goods and goods that government wants to protects the local industries producing them. These are the ones that attract 35 percent".

The Customs boss, who declined listing the luxury items promised to address a press conference before the end of the week to "give details of the tariffs that we are goingto operate". He assured that the tariffs that are going to be operated would be very simple and straight forward, "that Nigerians would avoid going through the neighbouring countries or going through unapproved paths to avoid payment of duties".

Alhaji Ahmed opined that the various reductions would tremendously help to ensure high level of compliance withthe new tariffs. While explaining that it was the responsibility of the NCS to collect revenue for the government, Ahmed pointed out that the revenue so collected do not come into the account of the service. His words: "Our responsibility is to collect revenue for the government and that revenue does not come into the account of the Customs Service. Infact, the Nigerian Customs Service does not even touch a kobo of that revenue. All what we see is the receipt of payments from the banks.

Even the assessment of the duty and classification ofthe goods are not done by the Nigerian Customs Service. These are done by the service providers that were appointed by the government. Hopefully, by 1st of October (this year),all banks will commence e-payments. We don't need to have physical receipts from any of the banks from 1st of October".

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