The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi, has described as unacceptable a situation where operators of the nation’s Free Trade Zones (FTZs) arm-twist and circumvent the laws of the land, using FTZ as a smokescreen for smuggling and evasion of duty payment. He said it was to encourage local production and boost national economy that the federal government restricted or bound the importation of goods such as textile, rice and soaps. In the case of rice, the increase on duty rate to 100 per cent and levy and restriction of its importation to only through the sea ports by government was aimed at encouraging local production. Abdullahi lamented that while a sustained clampdown on rice smugglers at land borders is on-going, some FTZ traders are importing rice, motor batteries, wine, textile and other items in the import prohibition list (IPL) under the guise of FTZ without payment of duty only to smuggle same into the country and make astronomical profit to the detriment of the nation. He said that his earlier directive for stricter measures was aimed at sanitising the process especially to ensure that nobody hide under loose process to import things that might be of security consequences. The NCS boss reminded such traders that the law setting up FTZ does not exempt them from paying duty on items that would be brought into the Customs territory (into Nigeria for home consumption). A statement issued by NCS Headquarters and signed by Deputy Public Relations Officer (PRO) quoted Abdullahi directing all such traders should ensure that they pay all appropriate duty within two weeks or the service will be left with no other option than to invoke the law. “How can we be fighting smugglers of rice through the land borders while some FTZ traders continue to use it as a conduit for smuggling same?”, he queried. To address the anomaly, the NCS Comptroller General said: “All Customs Area Controllers in-charge of FTZs have therefore been directed to strictly enforce the laws governing the operations of Free Trade Zones in the interest of national security and economic well being of the nation”.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:36:32 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015