By Richards Adeniyi
THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is set to issue licenses to inland Bonded Vehicle Terminals in the country. Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Joseph Attah, disclosed this in Abuja recently.
The license is for motor dealers and any interested persons that would want to operate inland bonded vehicle terminals in Nigeria.
All those interested are required to have a large plot of land adequately fenced.
According to the Customs, this bonded terminals will provide job opportunities to our youths and vehicles coming from the seaports, properly examined and escorted into the hands of the final uses.
Interested persons to apply through the area controller of the command where they want to locate or site the bonded terminals.
“There is a bond, we call it bonded vehicle terminal. The applicant will have to approach a bank and enter into a bond to the tune of N50million.”
The essence of the bank bond is to ensure that government revenue is secure stressing that a bond from any licensed commercial bank would be accepted by customs.
The essence of the vehicle terminal was to strengthen businesses of car dealers and boost employment rate in the country.
The major requirement includes an environment conducive for work with a computerized system that could be connected to Customs ICT.
Others are a Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum of Article of Association and a current Customs agent’s license.
According to Attah, an audited account of the company’s current tax clearance certificate, bank recommendation, among others, were required to operate a vehicle terminal.
With the help of a bonded terminal, an operator could import vehicle from any part of the world and manifest it as vehicle destined to any terminal within the country.
On arrival at the seaport, Customs officers would escort the vehicles to the dealers’ terminal without payment of duty, adding that the vehicles would stay in his terminal at least 30 days without paying duties.