BY MARK ITSIBOR, Abuja and YUSUF BABALOLA, Lagos
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has said that its 2019 revenues soared to a high of N1.3 trillion, well above the set target of N969.83 billion, attributing the rise to Nigeria’s border closure with neighboring African countries.
In a statement on Thursday, the Service said the border closure forced cargoes that could have been smuggled through the porous borders to come through the sea and airports, a situation that raised revenue collection from ports.
“Before the commencement of the border drill on 20th August 2019, revenue generation was between N4 billion to N5 billion but now NCS generate between N5 billion to N7 billion daily,” the service said.
The amount generated is over the target of N969,831,167.83 billion set for the year 2019 and N139,241,835,082.29 billion over the sum of N1,202,448,733,244.89 trillion generated in 2018 by the agency.
It is recalled that the partial border closure was done by the government to forestall issues of trans-border crime and criminalities, fueled by the noncompliance to ECOWAS Protocol on the transit of goods by neighboring countries.
There is an ongoing discussion with the affected countries, which many hopes will yield a permanent solution to the challenges of border security in Nigeria.
In the same vein, the NCS said its efforts to prevent the entry of items that could compromise the security of the citizens, national economy and the wellbeing of the citizenry resulted in the seizures of 30,906 assorted items with a duty paid value of N62, 134,426,199 billion.
These seizures include arms, ammunition, illicit drugs, used clothing, vegetable oil, frozen poultry, and foreign rice among others that have grave consequences on economy security and wellbeing of Nigerians.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col, Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) described the revenue hike as a result of the resolute pursuit of what is right rather than being populist by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group interests.
The service believes its recent reforms aimed at increasing revenue collection responsible for the upward trend in revenue generation. The reforms are basically: Deployment of officers using the standard operating procedure; enforcement of extant guidelines by the tariff and trade department; automation of the Customs process thereby eliminating vices associated with the manual process and stakeholder sensitization to ensure compliance.
“While we give our assurances of total commitment to the course of nation-building, we call on Nigerians, especially the business community to support the NCS on the ongoing drive to robustly contribute to National Security and create enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the country.
“The Service wishes to express its readiness to strictly implement the outcome of the ongoing diplomatic engagements,” it said.
Meanwhile, the NCS, Area II Command, Onne Port, Rivers state has generated a total revenue of N107.3 billion from Duty Paid Value on imported goods in 2019.
This was even as the command also generated $78,402,057 (N28.4 billion at N362/$) from export in 2019. This surpasses the annual target of N96 billion for last year by N12 billion which represents 112 percent of the target.
In a press statement by the Command’s public relations officer, Ifeoma Onuigbo Ojekwu, the Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Aliyu Galadima Saidu disclosed that a total of 24 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N1.3 billion, were also recorded in the area of anti-smuggling.
The seizures, according to the CAC, include 99 containers comprising vegetable oil, detergents, bags of foreign rice, scrap metals, corrugated aluminum sheets, furniture, tin tomatoes (tomato paste), insect repellant/killer, bales of fabrics and wax materials.
The seizures were made due to wrong documentation, false declarations, wrong classifications, concealments and non-provision of end-user certificates for the imported machetes.
However, preliminary investigations carried out by the Service revealed that the primary motive for the items being smuggled was to evade paying the correct duties. He also disclosed that a total of 255,407 metric tonnes of goods with a total Free On Board (FOB) value of $78,402,057 which is equivalent to N28,420,745,662.5 at N362.5 per dollar were processed and export through the area last year.
Also, in comparing the revenue generated between the year 2018 and the year 2019; the total sum of N94 billion was realized in the Year 2018. This shows a 14 percent increase in revenue generated in the year 2019 as against year 2018.
Comptroller Saidu, who frowned at the continued menace of smuggling across the ports and borders, also lamented the detrimental effect it has on the nation’s security, social and economic wellbeing.
He advised those involved in such unpatriotic behavior to desist from it, and warned that the command will not spare anyone as efforts will be intensified in locating and investigating the economic saboteurs, no matter where they hide.
