The Central Bank of Nigeria has again announced a hike in the exchange rate for paying import duty by 14 per cent.
According to Information from the official trade portal of the Nigeria Customs Service, the apex bank raised the Customs FX duty rate from N1,164.84/$ to N1,327.35/$ on Monday, April 29, according to Businessday.
This shows a 14 per cent increase compared to N1,164.84/$ previously used to open Form M prior and an increase of N162.51 per dollar required for clearing goods at the port.
This means that importers opening Form M today will require more money to pay import duties than those who opened Form M at the weekend.
the naira had declined by 7.8 per cent to N1,339.23 on Friday from N1,234.49 at the beginning of the week, according to FMDQ data.
Commenting on this development, the CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Yusuf Muda, noted that too much emphasis on revenue generation hampers, growth, job creation, and development.
He stressed fiscal authorities need to stabilise rates to give policy support to critical sectors of the economy and reduce the tax burden on investors.
A freight forwarder, Eugene Nweke proposed a fixed exchange rate system for cargo clearing at the port for respite to businesses, support trading activities, and stabilise the market value of products.
He claims that Nigeria’s inflation rate is being exacerbated by the cost of imports and clearance at the port.
