The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Hameed Ibrahim Ali, Col, retired, yesterday told the National Assembly that with the closure of land borders by the Federal Government, the revenue generation base of the agency has increased greatly as it raked a total sum of N9.2 billion in one day and has remitted same into the coffers of the government.
According to him, with the closure of the borders in the last two months, the revenue earnings through the Customs Service has improved as it now raking N5.8 billion daily.
Col. Ali spoke yesterday when he appeared before the Joint Finance Committee of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to brief the lawmakers on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper ( FSP) by the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, the Joint Finance Committee which is chaired by Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan ( APC Lagos West) has summoned both the CBN Governor, Godwin Emeifele and Comptroller-General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammed Babandede to appear before it in Senate Committee 231 by 9am today.
READ: We have concluded designs for return of tolls – Fashola
The summon of CBN Governor to appear unfailingly today became imperative because at yesterday’s joint sitting of the Committee, he neither sent a representative nor an apology letter.
Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, in her presentation before the committee yesterday explained the content of the MTEF/FSP document to the NASS joint committee on Finance.
Speaking further, the Comptroller General of Customs said, “When we closed the border my fear was that our revenue is going to drop. To be honest our revenue kept increasing. There was a day in September that we collected N9.2billion in one day. It has never happened before.
“This is after the closure of the border and since then, we have maintained an average of about N4.7billion to N5.8 billion on a daily basis which is far more than we used to collect.
“What we have discovered is that most of those cargoes that used to go to Benin (Republic), shipped to Benin, continue and then discharged and smuggled into Nigeria, now that we have closed the border they are forced to bring their goods to either Apapa or Tin Can Island and we have to collect duty on them.
“If that would continue to us it is a welcome situation. As a matter of fact, to answer your question, our revenue has not reduced. As a matter, it is increasing as a result of closing the border.”
On the litres of fuel following the closure of the borders, Hameed Ali said, “About 10.2million litres of fuel has now been cut down from what we have been assuming to have been consuming.
“This 10.2million litres of fuel is always going to across the border. The issue here is that there is incentive because there is price differential. And that is why our people keep pushing this fuel. If you go to Ilaro today, the filling stations that are there…in Idiroko, there are over 50 tp 60 filling stations in one place and they are close to the border.
“And what we have discovered is that they bring in fuel in the afternoon and in the night they siphon it. They do that every day and this is why we keep saying we are consuming so many litres of fuel every day.” Nigeria News
