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By Chinelo Obogo
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, hit at the Federal Government over the consistent increase in custom duties, saying it has had a devastating impact on businesses in Nigeria as many of them has had to shut down, leading to job losses and widespread hardship.
In a post made on his verified X handle, the former Anambra State governor said the government should end the inconsistency in duty charges as it is affecting the general business atmosphere in the country and that the arbitrary, ever-increasing customs duties must stop as it is now negatively impacting businesses and the cost of items which portends a huge danger to the economy.
“A situation where at the point of initiating importation, Form M and other documents related to importation are based on a particular rate of exchange, duties are calculated at different rates, say N1400 to $1, it becomes a serious business challenge that results in business losses. Worse still, it directly fuels the inflationary spike which is the basis of increasing cost of goods and living.
“Such arbitrary charges will obviously lead to further closure of businesses, and attendant job losses. This is because at the time of the initiation of the business, calculations, including duties, have been made based on the prevailing exchange rate and the prevailing market prices. If this situation is not corrected, our importers may resort to using ports of nearby countries, a situation that will leave our ports under-productive, and further deepen our economy into a worse situation as a result of loss of revenue,” he said.
Obi said the government must show consistency in its policies as this will help with economic forecasting and business planning, pointing out that businesses are dying and manufacturers are shutting down because of the poor and inconsistent economic policies of the government.
“All efforts of the government should be directed at supporting businesses, especially those in the manufacturing sector, to keep their businesses afloat and keep the economy growing, as the small business sector remains the most critical engine of economic growth. We cannot afford to target high customs revenues at the expense of the survival of local businesses, employment and reasonable cost of living,” he said.
