THE threat by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to close down The Intercontinental Lagos has been described as a sledgehammer approach to the ongoing dispute between the Service and large rice investors in the country.
The Public Relations Officer of the NCS. Wale Adeniyi had threatened a shut down of the hotel following the non-payment of retrospective duties by the hotel’s parent company, Milan Group.
Reacting to the threat, stakeholders say they are perplexed over NCS’ highhanded action which is blatantly against the rule since the investors have lodged cases in courts, and hence the justifiable claim that the action of NCS is outright subjudice, illegal and unauthorised
“The sealing-off of a global hospitality chain like The Intercontinental Lagos for no apparent legal non-compliance is likely to cause massive adverse effect on Nigeria’s image, apart from the acute embarrassment and inconvenience to its guests.
“In a highly debatable move, NCS is demanding retrospective duties from the rice investors for imports pertaining to 2014, while the investors have claimed that the quota allocations did not comply with stipulated regulations, issued late only by December and were also biased against bonafide investors,” according to the investors.
It would be recalled that following the confusion that trailed 2014 quotas, quotas for 2015 were also issued, cancelled and later re-issued.