Senate angry as Customs boss shuns public hearing

The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hammed Ali (rtd), on Monday shunned a public hearing on “A Bill for an Act to Repeal the Customs and Excise Management Act Bill 2016” and thus angered the Senate Committee organizer, which declared his action contemptuous. Senate Committee on Customs which took offence on the action by Col Ali concluded that his resolve to stay away from the Public Hearing was a deliberate attempt by the leadership of NCS to treat the apex legislative institution with contempt.

The Committee members contended that the failure of Col Ali to send a high ranking customs officials to represent him and the institution at the Public Hearing, was a mark of a deliberate ploy to undermine the Senate, more so as the representatives sent had no direct relevance with the bill being considered. The grievances of the Senate against Col Ali grew more against the backdrop that of the three Public Hearings which held on Monday, it was only that of the Customs that was not attended by major stakeholders.

Members of the Committee on Customs complained aloud that even the Minister of Power, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who also heads two other main ministries with his ever tight schedules as well as chief executive officers of Banks who are equally busy, were physically present during Public Hearings on bills seeking for repeal of Acts that established FERMA and the Bank of Industry (BOI) respectively.

In his opening remarks, Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and Excise, Senator Hope Uzodinma, said the National Assembly was determined to amend the Customs and Excise Act to ensure the evolvment “of an effective, efficient and result-oriented department or agency.” According to him, the Senate was also determined to also ensure that the process of revenue collection was strengthened in accordance with best practices. He said, the “Customs department of our dear country ought to be a major revenue earner that should be capable of funding at least 50 per cent of the national budget.

This should also be a critical department that should boost non-oil revenue of the government and fund infrastructural development. “Why is our own story different? The answer is simple. For 58 years, our Customs department has operated with a Colonial Act that has not only become obsolete and unrealistic but fraught with many loopholes for revenue leakages. It is not the best thing that has happened to the customs and excise department that to date it has been guided by a 1958 Colonial Act”.

Earlier, the Senate President Bukola Saraki, who declared the Public Hearing open said the move to repeal the age-long bills borne out of Senate’s desire to reposition the NCS with a view to ensuring that the agency “plays the pivotal role it is expected to play as a major funder of the federal budget.”

Saraki further said introducing the bill has become imperative in view of “the very critical role that the custom plays in the economic and security life of our country” adding that “Customs remains one of the most important sources of government revenues.” “With government revenues dwindling rapidly at a time when we have so much to do, this has further made the need for us to block all leakages and possible inefficiency points in our revenue profile an urgent national duty”, he added.