Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) who is the Comptroller-General of Customs, has approved a grace period of 1 month for all Nigerians to pay custom import duty on all cars whose duties have not been paid. The grace period spans from Monday 13th March to Wednesday 12th April 2017.

Therefore, all car dealers and private car owners are advised to visit any of the 4 Custom Zonal Office nearest to them to do the needful. These offices are: Zone A Headquarters, No. 1 Harvey Road, Yaba, Lagos; Zone B Headquarters, Kabala Doki, Kaduna; Zone C Headquarters, Nigeria Ports Authority, Port Harcourt and Zone D Headquarters, Yelwa Tudu Road, Bauchi State.

Col. Hammed has also called on all Nigerians to take advantage of the grace period to regularize affected vehicles which are in their possession. As soon as the window closes, an aggressive anti-smuggling operation to seize as well as prosecute owners of such smuggled vehicles will be launched.

For the avoidance of doubt, all private car owners who are not sure of the authenticity of their vehicle custom documents can also approach the Zonal Offices to verify with a view to complying with the provision of the law.

Autojosh