The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, and Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, are two government agencies saddle with the responsibility of regulating imports, but which of the two controls the standard of imported products?
Joseph Attah, acting Public Relations Officer, NCS, provided the answer to that poser Lagos, while reacting to the recent seizure of substandard tyres by SON. According to him, the function of customs is to collect duty and ensure that contraband does not enter the country. He said the duty of customs was not to determine quality but to collect duty.
Attah explained that once an importer gets a clearance document, certifying an item okay by SON, customs would only collect duty and release such item. “People need to know the function of customs and the function of other regulatory agencies. Before customs clears an item, a personnel of SON will be present to certify it okay. If the personnel out of negligence did not carry out his duty properly and signed that the item is okay and cleared it, customs will collect duty and release such item because of SON clearance document. The issue of standard is in the hands of SON, customs only collects duty so far it’s not contraband,” said he.
Explaining further, he said, “We are not in a position to determine quality, the job of determining quality is in the hand of SON and if it is a food item, the job of determining whether it is fit for human consumption is NAFDAC. So in this kind of situation, it is only when you trace the clearing document, you will know whether a personnel of SON is involved or not. There is no way customs will release containers of such tyres without a clearance certificate by the SON.”
Two Chinese men were apprehended for allegedly importing the substandard tyres valued at N5 billion in Lagos.