Payment deadline for defaulters on rice imports ends tomorrow

Daily Trust has reported, early this year, that the NCS has notified importers who exceeded their quota to pay duties at the appropriate time.
In a publication dated April 12, the NCS said it has given numerous notifications to the importers but they defaulted in payment of Customs duty and other charges occasioned by the excess rice importation.
Stallion/Popular Foods imported rice in excess of 475,017 Metric Tonnes (MT), with an accruing duty of N15.481billion.
The second highest excess importer, Olam, drew an excess of 110,062MT, amounting to N3.365billion.
Millan Nig. Ltd is to pay N1.089billion after importing an excess of 33,641MT of rice, while BUA owed a duty of N846.522million for excessively importing 24,092MT.
Ebony Agro also imported an excess of 10,070MT of rice, amounting to N328.201million.
Also, Atafi Rice Industries Ltd is to pay N1.297million after excessively importing 39.80MT and Arewa Rice Mill is to pay N664,876 for importing in excess of 20.40MT of rice.     
The Service said in a statement signed by the Customs Comptroller-General, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, that the defaulters have up to tomorrow, Friday April 17, “to pay up all outstanding liabilities due or face appropriate sanctions,” adding: “NCS will, therefore, not hesitate to invoke the appropriate sections of the law on the importers if full payments are not made to the federal government by the state period.”