• Classify vehicles with minor dents as salvaged units to evade high duties
• 80 per cent of imported vehicles classified as ‘accidental’
• Clean vehicles out of reach of middle-class Nigerians
• Poor parts, roadside mechanics contribute to low repair cost
• Weak environmental, safety standards among pull factors
Investigations have revealed how Nigerian automobile dealers conceal vehicles with minor dents as salvage cars to qualify for 40 to 60 per cent duty rebates for such vehicles, a practice that may have become a survival measure against lull in the retail sector, thereby undermining efforts to scale up the revenue profiles of the country’s ports.
Whereas the majority of the dealers have resorted to the importation of badly damaged vehicles as new business strategies as other survival options have been exhausted, The Guardian learnt that a number of the dealers deliberately misclassify slightly-dented cars to…
Source: Guardian Newspaper
