Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it collected a total sum of N1.2 trillion in revenue for the year ended in 2018. It also effected a total of 5,235 seizures with duty paid value (DPV) of N61.5 billion following the NCS reinvigorated anti-smuggling operations.
Joseph Attah, national public relations officer of NCS, who disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja at the weekend, said the 2018 revenue was N164.8 billion more than that of 2017, which was N1.037 trillion.
In terms of the seizure, he said the service intercepted arms, ammunition, more than 59 containers of Tramadol and other controlled drugs as well as 320,709 bags of imported rice.
Attah quoted the comptroller-general of Customs, Hameed Ali, as saying that “the historic feat was due to dogged pursuit of what was right rather than being populist by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group interests.’’
According to Attah, Ali said the increasing annual revenue generation from the service in the last three years was as a result of reforms being carried out by the service.
Ali listed the reforms to include the upgrade on the electronic systems from Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System (NICIS I) to NICIS II, which had blocked revenue leakage and enabled strategic deployment of manpower.
Others include strict enforcement of extant guidelines by Tariff and Trade Department and robust stakeholder engagement, which resulted to increase in compliance and increased disposition of officers and men to put national interest above self.
“Though smuggling remains a challenge, the service’s three layers security strategy continues to make smuggling unattractive to the smugglers. While the service continues to deal decisively with smugglers, fellow citizens, especially border dwellers and port users are advised to support NCS by reporting any smuggling activity to the nearest Customs formation.
“Together we can protect our economy and security by joining hands to fight smuggling and ensure that appropriate customs duty is paid on every dutiable import,” he said.
