Lagos — President of Rice Importers and Distributors Association of Nigeria (RIDAN), Gbadamosi Mufutau has raised fresh alarm that the unbridled smuggling of goods through borders areas, coupled with the recent increase in the benchmark for rice importation are threatening their business.

While speaking to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last week, Mufutau said these factors are capable of frustrating the importers out of business, just as it is capable of making mess of the federal government's plan to improve the sector. The federal government had last year proposed to establish 17 rice mill plants in some states of the federation.

It would be recalled that the federal government recently increased the benchmark for rice importation from $590, about N88, 500 to $640 (N96, 000) while duties payable on them, increased to 32 per cent. This is in addition to the increasing smuggling activities, which have been threatening the nation's economy to a halt.

The RIDA boss, who spoke to NAN said 560, 000 tones of parboiled rice imported into Republic of Benin in 2009 found their way into Nigerian markets, which resulted into loss of over N16.3 billion.

He said the quantity of rice smuggled into the country through the nation's borders was increasing by the day, recalling that the smuggling, which started since 2005 has continued to increase astronomically.

"Go to Seme and Idiroko borders, you will see the beehive of activities of loading of hundreds of articulated vehicles with different products heading to Nigeria .It is a big economy for some selected people now while the Nigeria importers are grounded," he said.

According to him, if activities of the smugglers remained unchecked, it would cripple activities of genuine importers and lead to sacking of over one million workforces.

The President said such situation could lead to increase in crime rate, saying the association had written to the ministries concerned, but the situation still remained the same.

"With these increases, importers now pay $205 (N30,750) as against $190 (N28,500) per tones besides the benchmark of $640 (N96,000) while the cost of freight and other ports charges had increased," Gbadamosi said.

He urged the federal government to harmonize the duty on rice with the neighbouring countries to discourage smuggling. "You observed that any increase in duty, tariff, levies and benchmark always cause increase of importation of such products to Republic Benin and Togo ports with the intention of smuggling such products into Nigeria markets," he said.

According to him, such inconsistency in policy creates room for fraud and gives opportunity for security agencies to take undue advantage of the situation to enrich themselves.

A survey of the various rice markets in Lagos state metropolis has shows that licensed rice importers are groaning under the illicit activities of smugglers. It also shows that the main rice market in Daleko, Iddo and Ebuti Ero markets in Lagos are over flowing with smuggled rice of various brands.

RIDA's boss said "Smugglers have almost driven the importers into extinction because they evade duty and taxes and sell at cheaper prices. "You know that the margin on a bag of rice is quite small, a maximum of N150 per bag. For those of us that import into the country through sea ports pay duties, levies and pay wages, one would see that the smugglers are sabotaging the economy. Beside the smuggling activities, the Federal Government has increased the value per tone of rice to $640 from $590 while duties on it had increased to 32 per cent in accordance with international benchmark", he said.

According to him, in the past, the smuggling of the commodity into the country was not a serious threat to importers, but now, with smuggling assuming a much more frightening dimension, the challenges have become enormous.

A nutritionist, Mr. John Akhigbe said since rice is the staple food of Nigerians, the Nigeria Customs Service seems to be paying lip service to smuggling activities because the high cost of rice is bore by the common man.

Akhigbe said the ugly aspect of the issue is that the lives of many Nigerians are on the line because most of the smuggled rice are unwholesome for human consumption.

He explained that all imported rice into the country are duly tested and certified by NAFDAC as against smuggled ones that are not tested.