Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, said on Wednesday, July 10, that it was still studying the directive by the President on Tuesday on food importation to ease the hunger in the country.
This is as the service said it generated about N2.7 trillion in the first six months of 2024, an increase of about N200 billion over its projected revenue for the same period.
The service has a revenue target of about N5. 06 trillion for the 2024 financial year
Speaking when the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise visited the headquarters of the service on oversight, the Customs boss said while the order by the President is aimed at addressing hunger in the country, It is not aimed at opening the border for smuggled goods to enter the country
He said: “We are still studying it ourselves. There is nothing in that pronouncement that says the extant rules have changed apart from the suspension of the tariff and taxes. Things that are not allowed through the land border have not been allowed by that pronouncement.
“There is nothing in that pronouncement on that because nothing was said about it. But if there are specific issues or requests that will be made from border areas, we can articulate them as input to the Minister. What was released recently as a product of several months of consultation?
“The objective is for us to address hunger in Nigeria and not to provide a base for smuggling through the land border. So, we have to be very careful in the implementation to ensure we don’t get undesired objective from it.”
Responding to the issue of customs officers raising markets in search of smuggled goods, he said “Let me issue a disclaimer. I did not authorise any Customs Officer to go to any market. We are not supposed to go to any market or operate in the market.
“But the market is not supposed to provide a sanctuary for smuggled goods. If we have information that there are smuggled goods in an area, the law allows us to go there. But because we went to keep the peace, that is why we don’t raid markets, but we also want market people to display some level of responsibility”.
Briefing the lawmakers on the successes recorded by the service in the first half of the year, the Deputy Comptroller General of Customs, in charge of Trade and Tariff, CK Niagwan said the service generated about N2.9 trillion as of Tuesday, July 10.
She said the target revenue for the period was N2. 53 trillion, adding that daily revenue collection by the service increased by about 44 percent over collections within the same period in 2023, attributing the successes recorded to teamwork to block leakages.
Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Hon. Leke Abejide expressed confidence that if the challenge of scammers is addressed, revenue generation by the service will greatly improve.
He said: “On the issue of scanners, we took it as a very big subject in the 9th Assembly. And when we went round, we discovered that some of these scanners are even better than the ones they are bringing now. The speed at which they scan is better than these small ones they use the vehicle and the drive-through.
“We made a proposal for the repairs. We are still on it. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for that. And you remember these scanners when they brought them, they came through the service providers; Cotecna, SGS and Global Scan on Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT), and that’s what they did and they exited.
“When they were leaving, there were some of the aspects they are supposed to show to the Nigerian Customs which they handed over to, they didn’t especially the spare parts aspect. So, when they wind down, that’s the end. We have to look at it and also tell the Ministry of Finance to do the needful.
“The former Comptroller General of Customs, more than 10 times we speak on this, he told me that the first set of scanners that will come in 135. So, that’s why we want to know since the message comes from Customs whether we have received up to 50 now.”
Abejide also spoke of fluctuating exchange rate for the clearance of goods and asked the service to give Nigerians a rate which can be used by importers.
THE NATION
