How V- REG hobbles gains of VIN policy — Farinto

Segun OladipupoThe Acting National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Collins Farinto on Tuesday lamented the demurrage and additional storage charges incurred by importers and their agents due to delay in V-REG hindering the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Valuation system.Speaking with journalists in his office, the ANLCA boss disclosed that the technical partners of the electronic clearing system would be made to pay for the loss incurred by the importers, saying the system collapses at least two times every week.In view of this, Farinto called on the Ministry of Finance to help address the menace which has become a norm in the port operational system.“V-REG and its technical partners should be ready to pay for these delays because we have almost two days of system collapse every week.

“Sometimes, we have issues when the capturing of the V-REG is done, but it doesn’t reflect.

“Without completing the V-REG, we can’t do the VIN valuation. So, the federal Ministry of Finance and its contractor should be up and doing to address the challenge,” he stated.According to him, should the failure persists, the association will be forced to collate the fiscal losses occasioned by the delays and institute a legal process to get compensation from the ministry and the contractors.The ANLCA boss however admitted that the electronic system has overcome its initial hiccups.Farinto noted that most challenging factor in the VIN valuation is handling of the non-standard chassis vehicles from Europe and Asia with the VIN number unable to be captured by the Customs system.He added that the discretion of Area Controllers of various Customs commands to direct valuation officers to provide values for non-standard chassis, causes the variations.He lampooned customs officers who he accused of frustrating the system even as he threatened to collate names of such officers and send to appropriate authorities, if need be. He begged the federal government to review the duration of vehicles allowed for importation into Nigeria from 12 to 15 years considering the economic situation of the country.“2009 vehicle pays over NO million duty under the VIN system because you will pay the 2011 vehicle model charge. These 2008 and 2009 vehicles are largely used by Nigerian Youths for Uber services and other e-hailing services.“The Implication is that older vehicles will be more expensive in Nigeria. We want the government to review the 12-year policy on used vehicles to 15 years.“There is also a need to review the levies on used vehicles while we understand the government’s approach to realize all possible earnings, it will be appropriate to reduce the levy on used vehicles from 15 percent to 5 percent in a bid to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigerians,” he maintained.