Motorists allege extortion, fault proof of ownership validation

•Want government to revert plan

Motorists in the country have faulted the plan by Federal Government to collect N1, 000 for the certificate of proof of ownership.
According to them, the collection of the fund is another way of extorting Nigerians from the myriad of dues by government from its citizens.

They claimed that government is looking for ways to cause more pains for Nigerians, who are already grappling with the pains of fuel subsidy removal, a hike in the cost of duties to clear vehicles from the port, electricity tariff hike coupled with exchange rate devaluation.

They, however, want FG to revert the plan, as the fee is an additional burden to the already outrageous amount of renewing vehicle particulars in the country.

The Guardian had reported that from next month, private and commercial motorists are to pay N1, 000 fee for proof of ownership certificates.

Hitherto, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) issued the document for free to buyers of new vehicles. The new fee is an additional charge besides payment for vehicle particulars and registration.

A motorist, Akinlolu Oluwamuyiwa, said the fee isn an overkill from government, all in the name of generating revenue. All the details in the certificate are covered by the vehicle licence.

Oluwamuyiwa said the argument that they will use it in tracking stolen vehicles does not arise because the owners’ details are captured in the vehicle licence.

He said government is just overburdening citizens with taxes, stressing that this is a case of double taxation.
“I wish government will have a rethink on this policy. Nigerians are already overburdened with hardship arising from the removal of fuel subsidy. National Assembly must reverse this,” he said.

Another motorist, Solomon Uwhubetine, said, this is only a net to further extort the poor masses in the country.
He said: “Increase in fuel pump price, hike in electricity bill, multiple tax rates and now this, May God help us. All this government seeks after is to reduce the small money in our pockets for those of us that even have it.”
For Emmanuel Alade, it is a form of extortion, vehicle owners already pay from their noses to get their cars registered and also renew their particulars.

“This levy is a targeted way of inconveniencing the people because I see it as unnecessary and irrelevant,” he stated.
Another motorist, Dr. Emmanuel Mogaji, said: “I think it’s not necessary. There are other touch points to manage this.”
A motorist identified as Emmanuel said: “Tinubu is a tax master. I don’t expect anything less than taxation in every sector.
It was hitherto issued free to new vehicle owners but currently, the government wants to charge them for it. We should be more prepared because this is just the beginning.”

However, some motorists have queued behind FG on the new policy. For instance, Akeem Soliu, said: “We are so used to free things that we find it difficult to even pay tax. Motorists have been enjoying free ownership for years, yet they pay N15,000 yearly for third-party insurance that they will never use, N1,000 for proof of ownership yearly is a welcome development by the government.”

Another motorist, Luqman Mamudu, said the directive and needs for a central database has long been captured by the national road traffic regulations of 2012, saying full compliance in the form of a central database by various road traffic administration stakeholders has been the issue.

Mamudu, who is also the Chief Executive Officer, Transtech Industrial Consulting Limited, said it was in an attempt to address this issue that the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) in 2014 provided for and built a digital platform named the National Automotive Repository (NAC-NAR).

He said the repository was to allow a seamless handshake between Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), all the 36 states’ vehicle administration offices, the police, the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) and of course National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC).

Mamudu, who is also a former director, of policy and planning at NADDC, said the NCS was to capture the 17 digits of Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) at the point of duty payment and upload to the NAR, and NADDC was to input all VIN of locally assembled vehicles.

He disclosed that all entitled stakeholders in the road transport network were to be granted IDs for verification in various forms including QR, which were to be embedded in the road licence certificate of vehicles screens for police verification on the road from their phones. According to him, this project has long been abandoned after nearly N100 million was spent.

He said neither Customs nor the rest like the police, FRSC among others keyed in, rather they all chose to build their platforms.

“Now that the Joint Tax board seems to have rallied everyone to this common course, we should all embrace it. As I said the vehicle proof of ownership certificate derived from this legacy platform is compulsory for all the reasons listed: automotive development planning, security, transparency and accountability.

“What I don’t however, understand is why you will need to burden Nigerians with an additional N1000 to cost of road licence, Insurance, among others. If the POC aims to streamline title documents to the automobile, the cost of documentation should drop. There are over 14 million registered vehicles in Nigeria. If you make everyone pay N1000 this will be about N14 billion and this will be renewed yearly.

“I think most Nigerians will gladly pay if there is more clarification around this charge. I think the POC should remain free while emphasis should be on compliance,” he said.

For Professor of Transport and Logistics at the Lagos State University (LASU), Samuel Odewumi, it is a desperate revenue generation for an economy that is in dire straight. It is a way of raising revenue for government from a class of people that the government thinks could afford it.

Odewumi said: “While I understand the plight of this government as it struggles to keep the ship of state above its debt ridden state, I will want to make the following suggestions: First there must be no new administrative structure for the collection of this levy. They should just add it to vehicle licence fee and indicate the subhead that the N1k will drop into and the authority that will coordinate and dispenser it.

“It should be decided whether its going to the federation account and in what ratio. I will suggest that a portion should acrue to state of point of collection.

“Secondly, this need not be a flat rate. It should vary with the capacity of the private cars and tankers or trailers. I will advise that commercial buses should be excluded. But private Jeep Cars like Prado/Lexus/Benz should be N10k. Bullet proof Cars and Jeeps should be N100k at the minimum. This is the just and fair manner of imposing such taxation,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said a big portion of the money should be dedicated to road and bridges repairs

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