₦airaland Forum

Philadelphia:
Another wicked Nigerian taking advantage of the situation to advertise his business instead of advising OP on how to get his car off custom's net.

Nigerians are bloodily and unmercifully wicked.

uboma:
Is ProtectMyMoney duly registered by the authorities?

ProtectMyMoney:
222martins,

Please tell me something I don't understand.

When I visited kakakibuy's thread for the Gx460. Posted on Nov 20...I saw the car chilling in a what looked like a residential area from the pics kakaki posted .. What's the link?

Fentanyl:
the prince of shame is coming

ZACHIE:
Do that with Corolla and Camry of 2007.

Dint try that nonsense with a Lexus of 2016

dannybrasky:
That should be when it was cleared, removed from the port and parked somewhere in lagos before the journey. if I'm right

izzou:
I like the way car dealers and clearing agents always have each other's back

The unity is similar to that of the Tower of Babel

thebigkendo:


One year after, one guy never still neva allow nairaland rest on top one cemented ES350

oliverjiad:
sir I believe at the check point 4 u guys can resolve things amicably with atlease 50k that's if agidi no involve because clearing that suv with full duty would cost you nothing less than 4.5m,but at this point be ready to have assessment of about 2m and ull still settle at the customs house were assessment is been issued,as for the clearing agent using the word these Nigeria he should utter that first solution then along the line he can explain that for you to understand and to know your stand immediately,there are lot of machines cleared with u underpayment and they still move around all city of nigeria no issue,that is when u know ur way in naija ure good to go

Jaid

jaymichael:
That exactly is the issue. 35% duty +35% LEVY, 7% SURCHARGE on duty, 0.5% ETLS 5% VAT. add Shipping, Terminal and clearing agent fee, you are spending like 95% of the FOB VALUE of your car. Check am na, who fit pay the correct duty?
cc 222Martins

buymyride:
next time when you collect your papers, go to custom office yourself and verify it for just 3k. After verification, you would be given the verified copy which you would show custom officers any time they stop you rather than the real custom paper, and once they see that form, they automatically let you go. Just 3k bro

Openbusiness:
Sir, let me tell you what you don't seem to see. With Nigerian customs, for duty payment or clearance of your goods, you have 3 categories which I call:

1) Full duty (full duty paid)
2) Acceptable duty (more than half full duty paid, less settlements)
3) Non - acceptable duty (less than half full duty paid, more settlements)

Both number 2 and 3 are short payments but it is those that do number 3 who will have problems with customs FOU. I'm talking about importation in all industries, not just cars alone. In my earlier comment, I said maybe only about 1% importers pay number 1 (full duty) because they will run of out business in a short time if they do. So in the customs clearing system, the norm with customs in Nigeria is for people to pay number 2. Number 2 for example is, if full duty is N400m, the person might be allowed to pay like N200m (or more) and settle N50m. Then his goods are duly released with genuine papers. When FOU crosses him on the road and they check his clearing documents, they re-evaluate or re-assess what his duty should be. They might calculate N420m and then they see that he paid N200m, they know he would have settled their people nothing less than maybe N40m, so they calculate that he must have paid around N250 total for his goods to be released, then they will tell him, find something for us, or anything for your guys. He might tip them like 20k and they will let him go with their blessings. As far as they are concerned, even though he didn't pay number 1 (full duty), he paid number 2 (acceptable duty), so they will let him go. But assuming they stopped him and then they checked and saw he paid N80m as duty for something that should have been around N400m, then they will seize his goods and take it to their command or demand a high bribe from him like N100m, before they will let him pass, because the duty he paid falls into category number 3 (non- acceptable duty). Now as it relates to cars, most car importers or clearing agents pay acceptable duty, maybe 98% of them. Hardly will you see any car with full duty, what they pay is acceptable duty that customs will check and not disturb and let the car go. Assuming for this case now, the agent paid maybe duty of N3.5m (acceptable duty), no customs would have impounded the car, they will just collect roger of like 2k and let him go. But paying N1.9m duty out of N2.750m for a 2014 Gx460 is non - acceptable duty. FOU Customs will always disturb on that car. But I'm not discussing this matter again, before people here that have nothing meaningful to contribute except insults direct their frustration at me. This matter is not my business. The OP and his agent will settle themselves. I wish OP the best resolution. And your GX460 is a very solid beautiful ride, congrats and best wishes to you sir!

Openbusiness:
You're very correct sir, this is the main problem I see with the OP's agent. His agreement with customer was to clear car with full duty and this is what he charged for. Then why did he clear through the back door? I know someone that paid 4m duty for his 2015 Corolla last year, total clearing costs around 4.7m, because he said he doesn't want customs wahala as he was going to be travelling with the car to Benin from Lagos on a regular basis. How can it now be that a 2014 GX460 would be cleared for N2.750m? That's the magic I want to learn about in this thread and waiting for the OP agent to explain himself. N2.750m can only be back door clearing or undervaluation clearing. The OP has no fault at all in this matter. The clearing agent has a lot of explaining to do as to why he chose to clear through back door when your customer already said he wants full duty clearing. That is a breach of agreement and trust, and ended up creating problems for himself. Customs are not smiling under this new CG Ali. They have been so bold and daring like going to expensive hotels to seize cars, shutting down car dealerships to check their papers for correct duty, and even closing the borders. Even big men are hiding from customs now And ember months are here, where customs start to show their power on expensive cars they see on the highways.

ProtectMyMoney:
222martins,

The number one question I like to ask is what protected your money when you transferred money to adexfem?

Do you have a copy of his passport, bvn number and customs licence as a clearing agent?

So that you can notify customs of the default on shortchange and take necessary action to prevent scenarios such as this case of customs seizing your vehicle.

Before you do any transactions, think of how your money is protected.


That is why we launched ProtectMyMoney service

Kufie:
I want to quickly say these agents are the worst set of people to deal with but since I don’t know what goes down in the port, I’ll calm down and hold my words. There’s absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t give you full information on a service you’ve paid them for.

August 2019, my friend shipped in a clean title 2014 Toyota RAV4 XLE. He sent ₦1.5m to the agents and the agent paid a duty of ₦435k. FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND NAIRA ONLY.

I was so upset because I had to drive that car to Abuja without license plates. My saving grace is that I’m almost always on the highway and I’ve served the one of the ACG of customs so I’m family to customs. Spent a lot more than usual to get the car to Abuja but thankfully I got it there.

I doubt there’s one honest clearing agent inside the Tin Can port honestly. I’m sorry about your ordeal. Adexfem this is very shameful.

foolbuster:
Honestly i dont blame the agent or the Op. I might not know the process of clearing a vehicle or obtaining customs duty but i cant seem to understand why no one is blaming customs.

The customs papers are not fake, they are genuine.
It was customs themselves that issued those papers and released the vehicle, irrespective of how the papers was obtained fact remains it was customs that issued those papers, it is not fake.
If the conditions were not met, why did they release the vehicle along with genuine custom papers? Why is nobody talking about arresting the custom officials involved in the processing of the documents and release of the vehicles knowing that the conditions have not been met.

Is it not criminal for customs to issue clearance and papers for a vehicle knowing that the vehicle should not be cleared so that they can turn around and impound same vehicle for more money.

izzou:
Of course, the agent should not be blamed..

When you give your mechanic money to buy original parts for you after he charges you for it, and he buys fake parts, don't blame the mechanic. Blame the importer and customs.

According to the story, who did the op meet to clear his car? The custom officer

Who gave him a bill of 2.750? The custom officer

This is Nigeria, and you are correct sir. The Customs should be blamed for this

izzou:
I'm so sorry. I did assume much

He probably collected 2.750, paid 1.9 and kept about 800k as his charges

I apologize for assuming

omonla10:
do u know if u pay low duty, custom do alert them and raise additional invoice duty for u to pay.. Who no like beta tin.. If custom didn't allow it, he wouldn't have flown d car out of the terminal

omonla10:
Mr oga! Minimum, he would have settled customs between 400 to 500k..thats a fact that I know.. That's why it makes sense u tell ur importer what he's entering.. That car should have been cleared for 3m normally

izzou:
Did he tell the importer then?

izzou:
Good

What did his customer request for? And what did he charge him for?

omonla10:
he played on the importers naivety.. When an importer trusts u, u become his financial manager and make decisions for him.. He betrayed his importer.. I have importers that tell me they don't care even if u pay 100k as duty.. Just get thier cars cleared cheaply that's what they care about..

omonla10:
that's where he erred.. He should have let him know.. Him mentioning full duty nailed him..

ornicus:
In this Buhari economy with hard face hammed? No try am oo

izzou:
Its soothing to see that you actually said it as it is

He lied to the importer, betrayed him. Even if he has cleared 1 million cars in the past, what he did in this case was very bad

But read through the thread, and see fellow agents defending him. One even said the op should sue the customs instead of the agent that was not plain from the start

It tells alot about who we are as a people. It has always been about the money, even if we have to trade honesty for it

The matter has been sorted. Let's move on

omonla10:
Mr oga! Minimum, he would have settled customs between 400 to 500k..thats a fact that I know.. That's why it makes sense u tell ur importer what he's entering.. That car should have been cleared for 3m normally

legalwealth:
Can't we work out a system that won't need settlement or bribe to be given in this clearing niche?