Stakeholders have decried what they termed flagrant disregard of the directives by the Federal Government and the Minister of Finance to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to discontinue the collection of a four per cent Free on Board (FOB) charge.
Recall that the Ministry of Finance suspended the charge last week and directed NCS to discontinue its collection after widespread condemnation from manufacturers, importers, clearing agents, and the business community at large.
A licensed exporter, Bolade Oladipo, confirmed that customs was still collecting the charge as of yesterday afternoon, even though they objected to it.
“We raised the alarm that what they are doing is against the presidential directive, but instead, they told us that they have yet to get a white paper from the government. When it was to go into effect, they did that immediately without waiting for the white paper, but now they have been asked to remove it; it has been excuses and stories for over a week,” he said.
Another agent, Kayode Collins Farinto, also confirmed that the charge had remained in the system even though they were told it would be removed yesterday.
