• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Nigeria Customs’ revenue profile hits N1trn mark in six months

Reps peg Customs’ spending for 2024 at N706.67bn

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said on Thursday that it has grown its revenue profile in the first six months, January to June 2021, by generating the sum of N1, 003,752,951,735.55 as against the N713, 548,395,834.93 recorded the same period in 2020.

Joseph Attah, Customs public relations officer, who stated that the sum generated, which has a difference of N290,204,555,900.62 when compared to that of the previous year, said that hitting the N1 trillion mark in six months was unprecedented in the Service.

According to him, the feat was due to the willingness to adapt to changes brought about by global health challenges caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic as well as on-going reforms that exploit the potentials of technology:

On enforcement, he said that a total of 2,333 assorted seizures with duty paid value of N4,422,548,980.00 was recorded during the period under the review.

“Some of the seizures include items such as arms and ammunition, illicit drugs, and food items like rice, vegetable oil, etc that could have had consequences on national security and economy. Meanwhile, the Joint Border Patrol teams are operating at Nigeria, Benin, and Niger land borders, and sharing intelligence that could help to deal with the challenges of cross-border crimes,” Attah said.

According to him, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali (rtd) has extended the verification period for private aircrafts owners for 14 days -7th to 20th July, 2021 to accommodate those that failed to comply for the first time.

“This was in line the Service announcement of its intention to verify all Privately Owned Aircrafts in Nigeria from 7th June to 6th July 2021. By the end of this extended period, the Service will not hesitate to invoke appropriate sanctions as contained in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) Cap C45 LFN 2004 as amended against any Private Aircraft Owner that fails to take advantage of this period to verify his or her Aircraft,” he warned.

He however assured that NCS will continue to insist that all imports and export activities are done in compliance with extant laws of the land.