Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has decided to engage stakeholders over the introduced Vehicle Identity Number (VIN) valuation at the seaports.
The service’s Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomodi said that arrangements were in top gear to further engage respective stakeholders following a protest by clearing agents which crippled business activities at the Port and Terminal Multi-services Limited (PTML), Tin Can Island Port.
Bomodi noted that the service had decided to introduce VIN valuation protocol following complaints by stakeholders, saying that the decision was to remove human interference, have consistent value and harmonise a system that would be the same across the board throughout the country for vehicles.
According to him, “Customs has not done anything different from what it has always done. The only thing is that this protocol is an automated one that is driven by machine. We believe it is also in the best interest of VIN facilitation. The only thing new in the process is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to pull together trade data representing a range of values consistent for each car make and model using the VIN.”
He assured that the Customs was willing to re-engage all stakeholders on the issue and clarify wherever seem to be hitched.
Also, freight forwarders under the umbrella of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), have withdrawn from the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) protest at Lagos seaports.
The association’s Coordinator, 100 per cent Compliance team, Ibrahim Tanko, said NAGAFF had decided to back out of the strike as hoodlums and criminals who were neither freight forwarders nor customs agents had infiltrated the protest to commit a crime.
He explained that some unscrupulous persons from the Mushin and Ajegunle axis of the state had perfected plots to join the protest and unleash mayhem on innocent citizens.
Tanko noted that a petition had been sent to the Minister of Finance, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, against the operations of Webb Fontaine for inefficiency, leading to loss of revenue by freight forwarders and the government.
On February 21, 2022, customs agents embarked on protests at the Ports and Terminals Multipurpose Services Limited (PTML) Commands of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), over the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) e-Valuation policy introduced by the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), for imported vehicles.
