Fresh trouble is brewing in the maritime industry as licensed customs agents and the Nigeria Customs Service are currently in disagreement over the implementation of import duty payable on items registered under Form ‘M’. While the licenced agents are saying the duty should be calculated at the official exchange rate on the day the Form ’M’ is raised, the NCS insists it must be done at the time of clearing the goods.
The Form M is similar to an import licence and is considered a vital document to import any item. Every importer is expected to process the Form M through an authorised bank.
The National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents accused the NCS of violating the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy on the issue. But the NCS said it had not contravened any rule.
The National President, NCMDLCA, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, who spoke with our correspondent on the issue on Friday, quoted the CBN’s monetary policy circular No.39, paragraph 4.24 as stating the “import duty payable on items registered under Form ’M’ transactions, whether or not valid for foreign exchange, shall be calculated on the basis of the CBN prevailing exchange rate on the day the Form ’M’ is approved.
”He, however, claimed, “The situation we have now is that customs officials, instead of calculating your import duty based on the exchange rate at the time you raised your Form M, they calculate it based on the exchange rate at the time you want to clear your goods.
This is wrong and in clear contravention of the status that established monetary policy.
"Amiwero argued that the NCS had based their action on the provisions contained in the Customs and Excise Management Act Section 78, which said referred to the time of importation and exportation.
According to him, the provision being wrongly applied by the NCS for exchange rate transaction is meant for goods that fall under prohibition.
He said, “The concluding part to section 78-3-(b) gives a clear picture of the nature of goods relevant to the section, which refers to prohibited goods and not the exchange rate, which is clearly under the authority of the CBN, who issues guidelines for that purpose.
“The import guidelines released by the Federal Ministry of Finance in paragraph H (2) clearly states that all imports shall continue to be assessed for duty at the cost, insurance and freight value of goods using the rate of exchange on the approved e-Form M.
Amiwero added that the NCS process of raising Additional Demand Notice on exchange rate after approval of the Form ’M” with the issuance of Pre-Arrival Assessment Report contravened the import guideline procedure.
He called on the Federal Government to compel the NCS to comply with the law by refunding all the money collected as a result of what he called wrong application of the exchange rate process on the trading public.
But the spokesman for the NCS, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, said, “We have it in our own law that the applicable rate will be the one that is in force at the time of declaration.
“Our own system only takes exchange rate that is in force at the time of declaration.
This is because there could be a time lapse of between six and 12 months, between the times when the Form M is opened and when the declaration is made.
Our law allows for the rate that is in force during the time of declaration. There is no policy being contravened; we are only enforcing the provisions of our law.”
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