The Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the federal government to set a fixed import duty exchange rate below the market rate for at least six months.
The LCCI Director-General, Dr. Chinyere Almona, made this disclosure in a chat on Monday, according to The Punch.
Almona emphasized this as a necessary step for supporting business planning in the productive sector, particularly in light of the recent appreciation of the naira.
Earlier this year, the LCCI urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to halt the continuous increase in the customs rate and to reverse it to a lower rate for imports.
“This way, importers would be able to charge lower prices for their goods according to what costs they incur on the shipments. In addition, any fixed rate should be held for a specified time frame (e.g., quarterly) so people can plan. An element of predictability for planning purposes is highly desirable,” the LCCI statement partly read.
Speaking on Monday, Almona said, “We reiterate our call for a fixed import duty exchange rate below the official rate and fixed for at least six months. The recent adjustment from N1663.03/USD to N1645.65/USD as of December 3rd is already above the official rate of N1587.29 as of the close of the week.”
The LCCI D-G, confirmed that the recent appreciation of the naira against the dollar is a result of reforms and frameworks implemented by the CBN.
“These reforms have created a positive outlook in the market and are also checking the activities of speculators in the parallel market. With more transactions done through regulated platforms like the Bloomberg BMatch Platform and the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System, trading will become more responsive to real market fundamentals and beyond speculations.
“To sustain this gain, the government must work towards providing more liquidity in the forex market. This can be achieved through sustained high production output of crude to earn more dollars, supply more crude to our local refineries, reduce the burden of fuel importation, and generate more forex to defend the Naira even as the reforms are sustained. We must also sustain the implementation of earlier targeted fiscal measures like the import duty waivers and the oil and gas initiatives meant to increase local refining towards a zero-fuel import era,” Almona stated.
On Monday, the naira slightly depreciated on the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, moving to 1,534.67/$ from 1,533.75/$ on Friday.
However, in the past week, the naira appreciated by N137.69 against the US dollar, following the introduction of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s new foreign exchange platform.
