Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, has said that Nigeria lost a total of N138.9 billion in income generation in five months due to CBN forex policy.
This, he said, represented 35.5percent in income generation expected from the agency between January and May this year.
Ali, who spoke while briefing the Senator John Enoh-led Senate Committee on Finance on the performance of his organization, disclosed that despite the loss, the agency generated N312.9bn for the country within the period under review.
According to Ali, the amount generated was from the Valued Added Tax (VAT) and the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate (NDCC).
This comes as the Senate Committee on Finance has directed all the revenue generating agencies in the country to henceforth prepare and submit reports of their performances on quarterly basis to the Committee for assessment.
The Customs boss also disclosed that within the period, the Nigeria Customs Service lost a total of N138.9billion out of the N390.6bn it was expected to generate.
He further disclosed that the agency was able to gather the sum of N251.8bn out of which the sum of N211.124,434,386.60 was generated for the Federation Account with the sum of N40,591,872,059.41 generated for Non Federation Account.
Giving breakdown of revenue generation within the period, the Customs boss said compared to last year, there was deficit of 18,406,949,135.55 as N78,110,936,416.67 expected to be generated in January.
According to him, in February, Nigeria lost N27,176,737,878.21 instead of N78,110,936.416.67 just as the sum of N28,910,737,844.24 could not be realized from N78,110,936,416.67 expected in the month.
The agency equally lost the sum of N32,304,439,625.98 from N78,110,936,416.67 in April just as it lost N32,039,511,153.56 from the expected generation of the sum of N78,110,936,416.67 in the month of May.
He attributed the loss to the Central Bank of Nigeria new forex policy and increase in volume of credit.
“The CBN forex policy has become a big problem to trade, therefore people are not importing and we are a nation that is dependent on importation. If people do not import, there will be no duty paid and Customs we has nothing to collect.
“With this trend, there is no way we can meet the target set to us. We are hoping and praying that with the release of the budget and with the now relaxed forex market, we hope that traders will begin to pick up and import things. If things do not improve, certainly, we are in big problem, ”he said.
He added: “The bottom line is that we need God’s intervention for us to really back on track.”
On his part, Chairman of the Committee, John Enoh, who expressed worry over the development, directed all revenue generating agencies in the country to submit their detailed performances to the Committee quarterly.
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