Rice millers accuse Customs of wanting to ruin their businesses —

….claim closure of their premises was done in bad taste

FUNSO OLOJO

The rice importers and millers in Nigeria have accused the Nigeria Customs Service of engaging in a calculated attempt to destroy their multi-billion naira investments through what they called deliberate and callous closures of their business premises.

It would be recalled that last week Tuesday, a detachment of armed Customs officers invaded and sealed the premises of four renowned rice importers and millers over an alleged debt of about N32billion.

In justifying the action of the agency, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs and the Chief spokesman of the service, claimed that the affected importers, which include Messrs OLAM, Stallion/Popular Foods/Masco Agro, Ebony Agro and Conti Agro, imported in excess of their approved quotas granted to them by the Federal government under his programme to boost local production of rice.

But the rice millers association, in a statement, contested the position of the Customs, saying the action of the agency was predicated on a misinterpreted government policy.

‘’It is important to stress that our members are contending  that they are not owing Customs duty and levy. The dispute emanated from the implementation of a circular issued by the former Minister of Finance, MrsNgoziOkonjo-Iweala in May 2014’’ the association noted.

According to the circular, importation of Husked Brown rice(H.S Code 1006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed(H.S Code 1006.3010.00) by investors with rice milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme shall attract 10 per cent duty rate and 20 per cent levy and will be limited to the national supply gap to be determined by a committee for a period of four years.

Also, importation of Husked Brown rice (H.S Code 1006.2000.00) or semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed (H.S. Code 10006.3010.00) by pure rice traders shall attract an imported duty of 10 per cent and 60 per cent levy.

However, the millers claimed that the Customs authority read the circular upside down.

‘’Our members who are investors with rice milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme imported based on this circular and paid duty at the approved rate.

‘’However, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture without concurrence of the committee, unilaterally shortlisted some companies who have no verifiable investment, imposed an arbitrary quota and insisted that whatever our members have imported above the arbitrary and retrospective quota will attract a levy of 60 per cent as opposed to 20 per cent upon which the importers’ payments and calculations are based’’, the association declared.

The millers lamented that the punitive action of the Customs was based on the directive of the former Minister of Agriculture, DrAdesinaAkinwunmi that the differentials be paid despite the explanations by the importers.

The millers therefore alleged that the Customs authority has a sinister motive to destroy their huge investment in the rice value chain by ‘’this current overkill which is and cannot be justified in a society under the rule of law and due process.

But the Customs authority dismissed the claims of the rice millers as distorted information which are meant to deceive the public.

In a response by Adeniyi , He declared that about 26 companies which benefitted from the Federal government rice import quota policy abused the process.

According to him, they were to jointly import 1.3 million metric tons of rice to cover the national sufficiency gap.

‘’The approval document  indicated clearly the quantity  allocated to each of the beneficiaries with a caveat that full payment should be made for any quantity imported in excess of approved quotas’’, the Customs spokesman noted.

He declared that the Customs did not seal the warehouses of these companies as ‘’mere beneficiaries and certainly not all the warehouses of the 26 companies were sealed.

‘’Only four companies that failed to pay for importation in excess of the approved quotas were affected’’

The Customs accused the defaulters of deliberate attempt ‘’to create distortion in the market supply and price of rice, sabotage Federal government food sufficiency initiatives, enslave generations of Nigerians and cripple the economy’’.

Adeniyi stated that the Customs has the statutory powers to raid or seal the premises of any defaulter unless there is a specific restraining order from competent court of jurisdiction.

The rice millers have however vowed to fight the Customs within all the legal means available to them to get the shut premises reopened while the agency said it was determined to recover all the debts owned the defaulting companies.