By Stepehen Ubanna
When Bashir Adwale Adeniyi, MFR, Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Services, NCS, urged Nigerians penultimate week not to worry over the Federal government policy on zero percent duty /levy rates and Value Added Tax, VAT, on importation of essential food items like Husked brown rice, foreign parboiled rice, Grain Sorghum, Maize, Millet, Wheat, Beans and other consumable food items including Pharmaceutical products, he knew that the officers and men of the service are equal to the task and will not fail the nation in this trying times.
There was the initial fears in unofficial circles that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who incidentally was a former Lagos state governor, had initiated the populist measures to calm the tensions in the country and force the End Bad Governance against hunger and hardship protesters out from the streets of Kano, Kaduna, and other major towns in Nigeria, particular, in the northern part of country.
Given that importations of cargoes from the Asian countries of India, Thailand, China and the North American country of the United states, US, and other parts of the world takes time to arrive the Lagos ports of Apapa, Tincan Can Island, Port Terminal Multi-services Terminal Limited, PTML, Kirikiri Lighter terminal, KLT, phases I and II, Onne and Rivers port, Port Harcourt, including Calabar and Delta ports, may have encouraged the Customs Comptroller General, to put Compt Babatunde Olomu, Area Controller Apapa Command other Area Controllers at the nation’s seaports and Land border areas to be the red alert to receive the influx of imported food items into the country and to ensure that the right thing is done.
Compt. Olomu, who appears to have full sanitized the APM terminal, described as one of the biggest private Container terminals in the West African sub-region and the bulk terminals with the port and who knows his onions was said to have put Deputy Controllers Ibrahim Turaki, overseeing APM Terminal and those at the bulk terminals, and Frank Onyeka, officer –in-charge of the exit gate and the officer overseeing the Command Enforcement unit to be on the alert as well.
DDC. Ibrahim, who likes challenges was said to have put his officers into various teams headed by Chief Superintendents who reports to Assistant Comptrollers, who in turn report him. He may have split the officers at the terminal into teams in readiness to accept the influx of cargoes that might be arriving the country soon, in keeping with the Presidential directive. The Apapa Command, ha to put its House in order to avoid giving room to some black legs who may want to sabotage the government policy by delaying the process of the Consignments leaving the terminal without delay. What is happening at APM T, may not be different from what is happening the Command Bulk cargo terminal.
Abdullahi Maiwada, a Chief Superintendent of Customs and spokesperson of the service, was said to have made it clear to those that cares that listen that the Presidential directive allowing the importation of the duty and taxes –free importation of food items and pharmaceutical products into the country was aimed at ‘’alleviating the hardship faced by Nigerians due to the high costs’’ of basic food items.
Hhhe Customs spokesperson was emphatic that the fiscal policy measure aims ‘’to mitigate the high cost of food items in the Nigerian market by making the prices of the basic foodstuffs more accessible to all Nigerians to further address the current hardships in the country.
He may have spoken the mind of the Customs Comptroller General , who knows much about the policy direction of the present government that the new fiscal policy will not in any way’’ undermine the short-term strategies that had been put place over the last one year to safeguard the local farmers and protect Manufacturers’’.
The Customs spokesperson may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when he stated that in keeping with the Presidential directive to make essential food items affordable in Nigerian markets, the Nigerian President who had directed Olawale Edun, minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the Economy and who in turn had directed , Adeniyi, the Comptroller of NCS, which is the implementing agency , to put the necessary machinery in motion in readiness to ensure a seamless flow of the food items into the Nigerian market without any delay.
Given an insider information, Maiwada, the Customs spokesperson, had said that that the Nigerian President and the minister, has approve the regulation of implementation of a zero percent duty rate and Value Added TAX, VAT, exemption on Husked crown rice or parboiled rice, Grain Sorghum, Millet, maize, wheat and Beans.
Until the Nigerian government came out with the new fiscal policy to win the heart of Nigerians who appeared to have been pushed to the wall because of the hunger and hardship in the land, the duty collected by Apapa Command other Customs Formations across the country based on the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Common External Tariff, CET, was between 5% to 30%.
Take for instance, Grain Sorghum, Maize and millet, with ECOWS/CET, codes of, 100.90.00.00, 1005.90.00.00 and 1008.29.00.00 respectively had attracted 5% duty rate and .5%, VAT, while Wheat which has ECOWAS/CET codes of 1001.19.00.00 and Beans, which had ECOWAS/CET code of 0713.31.90.00 previous duty rate/levy of 20% each and an additional 7.5% VAT.
The Husked Brown Rice or par boiled rice rain both short and long gain,106 with the ECOWAS /CET code of 1006.20.00.00, which price, for a 50Kg .bag, was said to have N65,000.00 to N85,000.00, respectively in the market and a little- bit lower at the rice depots, in different parts of Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre and Sango Otta , in Ogun, home state, of former President Olusegun Obasanjo , due to the 3330% duty rate and levy and 7.5 % VAT, is expected to drop drastically in price with the new zero percent duty rate /levy and VAT.
The Customs spokesperson had aid that the new government fiscal policy will be effective from July 15, 2024, until December 31, 2024. There is no gain saying the fact that first one month may have been elapsed without the duty-free and Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS , taxes free food items arriving the country, meaning that the government may have to extend the policy to the first quarter of 2025, to make up for the lost time.
As a prelude to addressing the national food supply gap, CSC, Maiwada, had sounded it loud and clear, that ‘’to participate in the zero percent – duty/Levy rates importation of basic food items into the country, the company mut be incorporated in Nigeria and have been in operation over the last five years, meaning that it is not going to be all comers affair but for the traditional importers, like Olam, Stallion Group, and Elephant Group, among others which were said to have been in the business over the years before establishing their own rice farms and mill.
The Customs Chief , had said that that the company must have filed its annual returns and financial statements and paid up-to date taxes and statutory payroll obligations for the past years.
For the companies ready to import Husked Brown Rice, from the Asian country of Thailand, Vietenam, United States, and Agricultural par boiled rice, both short /long grain from India, Grain Sorghum, or millet, the government was said to have set a condition that they must have a filling plant with a capacity to process at least 100 tons on a daily basis, operated for at least four years. The company is also expeCted to have enough farmland for cultivation of local rice.
For the Companies importing maize, Millet and wheat, the Customs Authorities, which are working on the guidelines provided by the government had said that they must be Agricultural companies with sufficient farmland or feed mills or agro- processing companies with an out-grower network for cultivation., lSome of the companies which currently imports such food items into the Nigerian market includes Checkers Africa Ltd, Crown Flour Mills Ltd, YaronSanda Agro-Ventures, Nelson Smith Agro Systems, Bazaar Farms and Stores Ltd, Retail Supermarkets Ltd.
Perhaps to ensure ensure that only genuine importers are allowed to participate in the zero percent duty/levy importation of food items into the country, the Customs spokesperson had said that Edun led Federal ministry of Finance, will periodically provide the service with a list of importers and their approved quotas to facilitate the importation of these approved basic food items within the network of the policy.
A senior Customs officer had confirmed that at least 75% of the imported food items must be sold through recognized commodities exchanges, with all transactions and storage recorded. That much was also confirmed by CSC.Maiwada, the Customs spokesperson, who had said that the companies must keep comprehensive records of all related activities which the government can request for compliance verification.
The Custom National Public Relations Officer, had said that if any company which fails to meet its obligations under the new import authorization, it will lose all its waivers and must pay the applicable VAT, levies of 1%, Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme, CISS, and 7% port development levy including import duties. This penalty, he said, also applies if the company that was given permit exports ]the imported items in their original or processed form outside Nigeria. For companies which may want the hoard imported food items in the warehouses to make more profit, must have at the back of their mnd that the Federal Operations Unit,FOU, Personnel, across the country, which has the Customs Authorities to monitor what is entering the country from the various entry points could break into suspected warehouses to evacuate the cargoes which would be auctioned to the public. This is a message to the basic food item importers that all that glitter are not gold’’ and ensure they comply with the government policy to the latter to avoid playing into Adeniyi, Comptroller General of Customs’ hands and losing their cargoes to government.
