By Steve Agbota
Importers operating in the nation’s ports are seeking stable duty regime for importation of raw materials to boost local production and create employment opportunities in the country.
The importers who spoke with Daily Sun, said that having stable duty regime for importation of raw materials, instead of importing finished goods would move Nigeria from consumption to production nation.
An importer, Emeka Chukwumalu said government needs to relex some of its policies as they affect the importers and their business.
According to him, government should look for the best way to reduce the duty escalation regime, saying unstable duty regime makes it difficult for an importer to venture into importation these days.
“There should be duty regime reduction. Before an importer, we look for Form M, to open Form M, and get it process. He must have known before now that this is what he is looking at before going to the market. And probably by the time he is coming back from the market, this is what his expectation is.
“Otherwise, to go and begin to import on this economy, when the economy is not stable, duty regime is not stable, automatically no importer will venture into it. Because you are not even sure of your capital. And at times, all those things lead to abandonment of consignments in the port.
“Because when the person must have borrowed money from bank, the interest is on the high level and you have not paid. The next option for the person is just to abandon the cargo. And the banks will be going after the person. So these are the problems,” he added.
However, he said if importers have a duty regime that will be defined for a whole year at least, the importer will know for the whole year that he is going to pay N3 as duty.
He said after that year, the duty regime can be reviewed and that is how a standard economy can thrive, adding that is how the country will move from this dependent on consumption to production.
Another importer, Lanre Alasan, said the unstable duty regime on importation of goods has chased some importers out of business, saying government must fix a table import duty to encourage importers to stay in the business.
For instamce, he said importers before now used to clear a 40ft container with about N6 million, now, the same container is being cleared with about N13 million to N25 million and thereabout.
He said the extra charges of N7 million will go to the buyers of the goods, which are the end users.
“Apart from these extra charges, there are other expenses like moving the goods from the port to the warehouse where you pay a whole lot on the road to different agencies, officials and unofficials. So you discovered that indirectly the policy of the government is creating a whole lot of problems in the market system. He said by the time the cost of tariff is dropped automatically it will affect the cost of goods in the market.
“If you borrowed a fund from the financial institution with its own attendance rate, you pay a high tariff, at the end of the day, you are making a serious loss. You cannot be able to fulfil your obligation to the banking institution not to talk of other expenses.
That is why a lot of people are gradually being taken out of business and it is not good for our economy,” he said.
On the way out, he said there is a need for the government through its agencies to sit with stakeholders to see how they workout things to crash the price of goods in the market so that masses can fill the impact of good governance.
He said high tariff is affecting cost of production locally and that is why a bottle of Coca-Cola is being sold for N500 today even though it is not an imported product.