The Nigeria Customs Service on Thursday said rice importers who exceeded their allocated quota must pay the equivalent duties on excess imports following the expiration of the two weeks notice given to them.
The Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Wale Adeniyi, said this in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
Adeniyi said the two weeks notice given to the importers to reconcile their imports expired on Wednesday.
NAN reports that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently disclosed that rice importers who exceeded their quota were indebted to the tune of N36.5 billion in unpaid levies.
According to the ministry, Popular Farms and Mills exceeded its quota by 300,204 tonnes, while Olam exceeded its allocated quota by 110,169 tonnes.
The ministry also indicated that both firms accumulated unpaid levies of N28.39 billion, while other importers were indebted to the tune of N8 billion.
Adeniyi said the service on Wednesday officially wrote the specific companies, “notifying them about the fact that they had defaulted and the need for them to pay the duties”.
The Customs spokesman said that four of such importers had been contacted and had only a couple of days to acknowledge and respond.
Adeniyi, who also said the Service would not give the importers any other long notice, added: “The figure that was imported in excess and the amount they owed were also communicated to them.
“Our letters were specific to individual importers who had exceeded the allocated quota and the specific amount had also been indicated.”