Union urges FG not to reduce import tariff on automobiles

The Automobile, Boatyards, Transport, Equipment and Allied Senior Staff Association (AUTOBATE) has cautioned the federal government against reducing tariff on imported vehicles.
The union’s General Secretary, Comrade Sola Olorunfemi, said in Lagos that tariff reduction would kill industrialisation even as he noted the plan was evident in the intent of the government to review and delay the auto policy which took off two years ago.
He said 14 out of the 25 registered automakers had started assembling vehicles in Nigeria due to the implementation of the auto policy, but wondered why the federal government was considering halting the policy.
“This is worrisome as it means that the federal government is reversing on a policy that will increase the indigenous industrialisation drive which has been the dream of change by Nigerians,” Olorunfemi said.
“We are aware that motor assembling has been having some hitches as there has been scarcity of the needed infrastructure for the sustenance of the local assembly plants, yet it’s not enough to reverse the auto policy, especially when it is viewed from the angle of huge crises of the labour market cum industrial redundancy which continuous importation of vehicles over the decades has cost Nigerians,” he added.