sultaan:
With the fallen oil price and impending economic gloom, these rates will surely be reviewed downwards.

In a functioning economy you do whatever you have to do to increase revenue and that does not include raising tax on items you have no control over.

It is about to become Nigerians spending money that will dictate the economy and most will spend where they pay less to government.I can afford to buy and ship a car to Nigeria for use when on vacation but cannot afford to pay that much import duty to keep an item that depreciates daily.


To save cost is it even remotely possible I clear my car myself instead of using an agent because I know there is a procedure in place to do so

saintjoel:


Sir,there are so many things that only a trained agent can do,things like valuation,examination,calculating dollar values etc and that's why we're called customs licensed agents.The procedure been put in place is for goods shipped in containers,the importer can make bank payments but you'll still agents to process your papers for you,even custom officers can't run duty payments,they only accept the jobs from gullible Nigerians and transfer to licensed agents after deducting their cut.

The bestt thing is to ship through cotonou cos it's cheaper.

sultaan:


I do understand your advice and if I was you I won't put my livelihood in jeopardy by advising possible on how to bypass my services.

There was a guideline in place on NCS website and I feel I am educated enough to clear a simple car. But being the kind of country it is nothing can be done without bottlenecks

saintjoel:

Sir,I'm sorry to say but I'm not putting my livelihood in jeopardy and I don't know where you got your assumption from cos it sounds ridiculous. I'm a graduate and I also have Cisco and MSCE certified,so if you believe stopping as an agent today will put me on the streets,permit me to say that it's ridiculous.
Kindly state a country where you can import vehicles or goods yourself and pay import/export yourself,clear customs,locate your imports in the ports yourself,scan and obtain reports at land borders,hack your VIN etc.Many people just think that and agent's work is a day's stroll through the park,maybe that's where your getting your erronous views,if you tell me that your agent has told you how much to pay to bank,is bank payment the end of the job?.Which agency will you even use to run the job,this post was created to create a bridge between importers and agents,it's not as if we've been making money from it,if there's any importer that has given us jobs apart from carshoppers,let him/her come out and state it,all these are just to show you that you can't just get a car on ebay and it comes directly to your home without people assisting you.
Sir,forget about bottlenecks,if there's any custom officer on Nairaland,let him/her come online to tell us if they can even perform the jobs of agents and that's the day I'll retract this post cos even custom officers obtain the jobs and handover to agents,so if they can't run your duty,how will they teach on a website.

sultaan:


I didn't mean it like that I was implying job security for a certain reason.

Agents are not employees of the government there is no where in the function of the government where you need to clear your items through them by law. The ideal way is that the NCS create /gives a requirement to clear items; all an individual might need is a valid ID, documents identifying the item, and its value then based on the rate set for that item in customs book necessary payments are made and evidence of payment presented. All that is on the side of the shipper it is up to the custom to inspect or not inspect it.

Agents are just individuals that have been certified by the NCS as capable of facilitating expedient clearing of goods in this case not just an automobile but a wide range of items if you are bringing in construction items and material for a job then an agent will be your best bet.

FYI if I want to ship a car I will get the require paperwork call a shipping company for quote, drive down to the port give to custom for inspection when cleared give the papers to the shipping line and and get a bill of laden. But I have to be at work so I drive the car to a shipping agent pay his fees and cost of shipping they handle it and send me a bill of laden or send it to receiver if I want.

A duty is a tax should it be necessary to hire someone to pay one tax? if I go to a Mercedes dealership for a special order part like ac compressor they'll say it will be ready in 2 business day.As the part person enter my order into the system a picker is picking it in Germany and packaging for UPS with 1 hour.The package is on a UPS flight that night and next day at the hub getting sorted the second day it will be delivered to dealership ready for pick up no bottleneck no shipping charge.

If there was a real dealership in Nigeria that was shipping in 5000 cars a month do you think they should be going through customs, pay import duty they charge a sales tax and still be in business.That will be an industry if Innoson can do that for a country of 100million.

In the US a country of 300million there is an average of 50,000 F-150, 13,000 Camry, Accord, Altima, Fusion each a month. You the country aspire to be great it has to focus on great things

As an agent you should NOT be focused on clearing cars as your business you should be clearing consignments and the whole shipload of cars but no dealer is bringing in a boatload of inventory because we just want to depress the economy.

Dio1:
What is the cost of clearing a 2005 Mercedes C-class?

saintjoel:



Tincan/cotonou?

rahmathassan:
I bought a Toyota Camry from a dealer, with 1997 model label on the seat belt..but bn using it for over 2 yrs. now.. And not really sure of the duty papers, how much can it cost to formalize the paper of this car?

llade:
@ saintjoel pls I want to ask d price of custom duty on acura mdx 2008 model when d 70 percent auto policy comes into effec cos I intend to buy one later dis year. Many thanks.

saintjoel:
CUSTOM DUTY

This has always been a major bone of contention between agents,importers and Nigerian customs service.

The Nigerian constitution stipulates that duty must be paid for every goods and vehicles imported into the country,before May,2014 it was twenty percent for some vehicles and thirty-five percent for jeeps and heavy duty vehicles but after May,it was pegged to thirty-five percent flat rate for all vehicles and by it'll be increased to seventy percent by January.

We've always heard importers tell us that custom duties charged by some agents are always high and they give the jobs to agents that charge lesser fees but what happens to the bank payment. Let's use two vehicles as an example,toyota 4runner and highlander and we will be use the old tariff for land borders before the increment.

Let's assume an importer wants to bring a 2003 toyota 4runner into the country,all the agent needs to do is make his normal deduction of four years,which means 2003 4runner may pay the value of a 1999 4runner,which means 278,000naira bank payment and 350,000naira total cost (processing + 278,000 *bank payment*).

Now the problem starts when an agent overshoots the target year and deducts like 6years and pays less than 250,000-278,000 naira as bank charges (please note that this value may vary according to what the valuation office gives him/her),this automatically turns to we call a shortpayment and it's risky.

Also let's check highlander,using 2003 toyota highlander as an example. In the pix shown below,we can see that after the normal deduction,it's going to be 150,000-157,000 naira bank payment with 220,000 - 250,000naira overall expense.

Now,importers can see that custom officers (who will give the jobs to agents after removing their gains) or agents who charge less are putting your vehicles at risk at your expense,it's just a case of penny wise,pound foolish. The F.O.U patrols and C.G squads are now highly trained to spot this differences,although your agent or an average car dealer who's aiming to make more gain might grease the ways through these points,it'll not be an easy for the end user. We've heard people going all the way to non-existent border areas like ilorin to come up with duties that are so ridiculous and we'll keep wondering who gave them the authorization cos those commands are only out to raise revenue for the government and leave you at the mercy of F.O.Us and C.G squads.

This post is entirely the OP's opinion,thanks.

saintjoel:


Shipping through Lagos-

05 HIGHLANDER - =N=550,000
07 matrix - =N=620,000
04 MDX - =N= 450,000
05 rx330 - =N= 550,000

Shipping through cotonou -

05 highlander - =N= 485,000
07 matrix - =N= 450,000
04 MDX - =N= 614,000
05 RX330 - =N= 470,000.

ubiquitousade:


Thanks, what about a Rav4 2008 Model

saintjoel:


N620,000.

saintjoel:


N620,000.

saintjoel:


N620,000.

ifedayosol:
What about Toyota camry(envelope) 2002 model. Shipping through Lagos

saintjoel:


=N=300,000.

ifedayosol:
Thank you. Though I made mistake on the year, its 2001 not 2002

saintjoel:


Its the same rate.

TCD:
hello how much duty for 2002 camry coming through seme border?