The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hammed Ali (retd.) who defied the Senate by insisting that he will not appear before the lawmakers after obtaining writ of summons from the case instituted by a concerned individual on the matter, has said he has President Muhammadu Buhari's backing concerning the proposed policy on payment of vehicle duty.

“We are still looking at it. We are consulting. We look at the policy and refine it and apply it without causing hardship to Nigerians. We are not going to be as hard as people think. We are human beings.” he said.

He explained that the service initially fixed four locations for payment of vehicles duty because it was formerly restricted to car deaHe also allayed fears over the enforcement of the policy, which would mandate owners of vehicles that were seven years and below to pay duty on them.

Ali stated, “We are not going to mount road blocks from Aba to Port Harcourt and search every vehicle that comes. That is what scares people. People thought we would mount road blocks. We have been doing stop and search based on the law that allows us to do that.”

The customs boss also flayed some influential people in the country for evading duties.

He said, “The truth is that when I came in one of the difficult tasks is how to deal with, ‘big men.’ Big time businessmen in the past have created a situation that they were the beneficiaries of waivers and concessions. Huge amount of money is lost in this country through waivers and concessions.

“If John decides to import things as a trader, he is meant to pay duty, why should Ali, because he is a big businessman and has a status in the society be given waiver when the law is clear about it?”

He said that service had the support of President Muhammadu Buhari on the issue of payment of duties.

“The President agrees with us and the political will is behind us. As of today, apart from the statutory waivers, which the law allows, the President has not approved one single waiver,” he stated. He said that the NCS conceived the policy on vehicle duty because of security implications and the need to raise revenue.

Ali stated, “We want to capture all vehicles and link them to owners because of the criminal nature of things that are happening in this country. Somebody can pick your car and go and commit crime with it. Because we do not have the data, we cannot trace the car to the owner.”