Customs generates N61.5b in June

Customs generates N61.5b in June
By Obas Esiedesa ,Senior Reporter, Abuja

Executive Director, Business development of Dangote Group, Mr. Devakumar Edwin (left); President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the Vice-President/Nigeria Group Country Manager, Saipem, Mr. Giuseppe Surace, exchanging copies after the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), between Dangote Group and Saipem for the commencement of work on the ‘Dangote Fertilizer Project’ in Edo State.

The Nigerian Custom Service, at the mid-week said it raked about N65.1b into the Federation accounts for the month of June in the form of tariffs on shipped goods.

The amount represents more than doubles the N30 billion reported by the agency in the the whole of 2009.

Comptroller General of Nigeria Custom Service, Dikko Abdullahi, in a chat with journalists in Abuja, attributed the significant revenue growth to the adequate training given to officers of the organisation.

He explained that officers were previously uneducated on the new ways of retrieving customs duty and generating revenue for the government, a situation that has been corrected.

According to him, “in 2009 we collected N30 billion in the whole of last year, but today we have collected several times more. In June alone for example, we collected N61.5 billion. The truth is that the officers were not compliant and not computer literate. So the job suffered.

“They did not understand how the system works when we started. They adhered to the pre-shipment inspection and so lost grip. In this pre-shipment regime goods were inspected at take-off point and bills of laden and other documents only came here as evidence that the inspection was done properly.

“What usually happened here in Nigeria is that the Customs officer merely called the importer to the office and agreed on something as the tariff. Essential duties like classification and valuation were done abroad.

“The point is that when we practiced pre-shipment inspection our men just dropped their guards and never studied anything on their duties. They were reduced to people who merely opened containers and shut them back.

“When we operated that way, our personnel were actually uninitiated or uneducated in the new ways of retrieving customs duty. But we have trained quite a lot of officers and that training has led to the increase in revenue that we are being praised for.”

Continuing, the Customs boss expressed happiness that officials of the agency are now better motivated, particularly with an increase in take-home pay, which has subsequently improved the attitude to work of the average officer.

Speaking on the possible impact of the revenue collection in the life of the average Nigerian, Abdullahi noted that the “tariff we collect is usually divided into three parts, and is credited to the three arms of government namely: the federal, state and local. No Nigerian can claim not to benefit from our efforts.

“The Federal Government which takes care of federal roads and others provides services that people use and electricity, the state government provides education and fertilizer while the local government does the rest.

“No matter who you are you must enjoy something that the Customs tariff contributes to and that is why we fight smugglers because if they desist from smuggling revenue will grow and government will take more of its responsibilities to the population.”

To enable government continue providing good governance, he urged all to pay dues taxes and tariffs regularly and in the right amount to enable government perform its responsibilities for the benefit of all.

Abdullahi had announced earlier that Nigeria would be playing host to the World Customs Organization from December 7-14 where the world’s apex customs governing body would work out its road map for 2012, after beating 30 other countries to secure the hosting rights.

“The (NCS) was in Brussels- the Global Customs Headquarters, where we meet annually. We ran away with the prize of hosting the WCO which is the Customs’ apex governing body. About thirty countries entered to secure the hosting rights but Nigeria was chosen.