Prices of goods are set to go up again following an increase of import duty benchmark for the Customs Service by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday, raised the exchange rate for calculating import duty by 14 per cent.
Findings from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)’s trade portal indicated that the bank raised the import duty rate from N1,164.84/$ to N1,327.35/$ on Monday, representing 14 per cent increase, according to a New Telegraph report.
With the increase, importers, who opened Form M on Monday would require more money to pay import duties than those who opened Form M on Friday or Saturday.
It would be recalled that on April 22, 2024, CBN reduced the exchange rate for import duty twice in less than four days by 7.54 per cent from 1,238/$1 to N1,150/$1.
The exchange rate was first adjusted on April 18, 2024 and April 22, 2024, leading to a decline of N88. It was learnt that the new improvement was attributed to the strategic measures and reforms implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to curb inflation and stabilising the foreign exchange (FX) market.
It would be recalled that import duty as contained in the Nigeria Trade Hub (NTH) was reduced more than eight times as follow: 15th March 2024, N1,612/$1; 16th March, N1,593/$1; 19th March, N1,572/$1; 23rd March, N1,448/$1; 26th March, N1,405/$1; 28th March, N1,364/$1, 29th March, N1,303/$1; April 18th, 1,238/$1 and April 22, N1,150/$1.
Before the latest reduction in the exchange rate, customs agents had said that the floating exchange rate in Customs duty payment had negatively affected the volume of cargoes at the port as people no longer import goods.
