Customs generated N898bn in 2016 on aggressive revenue drive

Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) collected the sum of N898.673 billion for the federation in the 2016 fiscal year on account of aggressive revenue drive.
Of that amount, customs duty accounted for N720.743 billion, while Value Added Tax (VAT) collected by the service on behalf of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which has the mandatory responsibility of tax collections, stood at N177.930 billion.

Net customs duty collection was 76.90 percent of the N937.331 billion target set for the NCS by the Federal Government.
A total of N600.350 billion was remitted into the Federation Account and shared by the three tiers of government, while non-Federation Account Remittances stood at N120.392 billion.

Customs’ spokesman, assistant comptroller, Joseph Atta, said the revenue recorded by the service was made possible due to its aggressive revenue drive, saying the tight access to finance foreign exchange by importers as well as the 41 items-exemption policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also affected income targets.

According to Atta, the strict application of extant laws championed by the comptroller-general of Customs, Hameed Alli, greatly impacted on the overall performance of the organisation.

Atta said with the recent re-organisation of the service in which several top management officers were redeployed to strengthen its operations, coupled with the current elimination of leakages, he was optimistic that the NCS would perform better in the current year.

A document seen by BusinessDay detailing monthly collections by the customs in 2016 indicated that the highest revenue was realised in August, when N95.766 billion was generated.

The closest figure was realized in September when collection was N90.211 billion. That level could not, however, be sustained as collections dropped to N83.889 billion and N84.514 billion in October and November, respectively. The year’s collection ended with December’s N 82. 998 billion.

Collections in the other months were: January, N74. 380 billion; February N62.886 billion; March N61.228 billion; April N57. 381 billion; May N57.055 billion; June and July were N72.772 billion, and N75.603 billion, respectively.