Nigerian Customs Stinks –Saraki

The Senate on Tuesday indicated its resolve to tackle the problem of dwindling revenue profile of the Federal Government as it mandated its committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff to probe how the revenue generating agency recorded huge shortfall of N230 billion in the last quarter of 2015.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, against this background declared that the agency stinks, given its failure to generate maximum revenue for Nigeria.

The Senate took the position after adopting a motion sponsored by Senator Isaac Mohammed Alfa (All Progressives Congress APC, Kogi East) titled: “Urgent Need to Examine the Operations of the Nigeria Customs Service Revenue Drive”.

Alfa in the motion noted that the revenue projection of Customs has not been met despite multiple strategies and policy initiatives to improve revenue generation.

He noted that in the first quarter of 2016, the Tin Can Island and Apapa Command of NCS recorded a revenue shortfall of N2.7 and N2.5 billion respectively.

He said, “The revenue shortfall is as a result of unwholesome fraudulent trade malpractice, under declaration, abuse of fiscal policies, concealment, false declaration of value and wrong classification”.

Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) lamented the decline in NCS revenue at a time when Nigeria’s economy is facing recession, saying “what is happening to NCS is a reflection of fall in the volume of trade and commerce in the country”.

In his own contribution, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, emphasised the need to ensure that government block all leakages and optimise the revenue potential of Customs.

“It’s time we blocked all leakages in the system and optimise the revenue potential of the Customs Service so as to increase all revenue,” he said.