By Godfrey Bivbere & Godwin Oritse

Federal Government is to introduce a new vehicle import policy that will force importers to include the Chassis number, engine number and Vehicle Identification number in their import documents to enable government track the history of every vehicle shipped into the country.

Disclosing the position of government in Lagos at a town hall meeting put together by the National Automutive Council, NAC and Ship and Ports Communication, Assistant Comptroller General, ACG, of Customs, Banke Adeyemi, said that the new policy will commence next month.

According to the Customs boss, “On our ITC platform, we held a meeting with all shipping companies operating in Nigeria and that vessels coming into Nigeria laden with cars henceforth from June 1, most carry the   chassis number, engine number and Vehicle Identification number.

If a vessel is carrying a vehicle, the manifest should not call it vehicle or automobile, the real name by which the vehicle should be identified is the chassis number, engine number; and Vehicle Identification number, we are able to trace the age of the car which will enable us ascertain the proper duty that is to be paid on it.

“As time goes on, we are going to pass the era of interface with stakeholders at the port because by the time we build in your bill of laden containing the above into the system, we will be able to determine the kind of cars and the duty that they are supposed to attract.

“And in our data base, there are so many tools that are there, we have classification tool, valuation tools, the system will automatically give the value after processing the chassis number, engine number and Vehicle Identification number, getting the appropriate age, whether it is a prohibited import or an import that should pay the 35 percent levy because the 35 percent levy is another policy introduced by government to help the automobile industry.”

While commending the management of NAC for its efforts so far in developing the automobile industry he however stressed that there are a few gaps that needed to be filled by the Council. She explained that as a result of the absolute prohibition of exportation of scrap metal, it is imperative for NAC to take advantage of the policy by involving the private sector in the exploitation of that sector of the automobile industry.

She suggested that the NAC management should provide a depot where scrap metal can be collected and from where private sector operators who require it can go to. She also called for a data base of available scrap metal in the country to be created by the NAC management, as well as the number of private sector operators in the industry for easy planning.