Nigeria Custom nets N77.9b revenue in first quarter of 2014….

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) collected about N77.9 billion in first quarter of 2014.

The amount collected by NCS was contained in the summary of monthly revenue document prepared by the service and obtained by THISDAY. According to the document, while N27.4 billion was collected in January, N23.8 billion was collected in February and N26.7 billion in March.  NCS raked in revenue from duties, fees and levies from consignees and their agents.

The service said that out of the revenue collected during the period, N41.7 billion was remitted to the federation account and N36.2 billion remitted to non-federation account.

A breakdown of the data showed that  N7.2 billion was collected on port levy, N1.4 billion from levy on sugar, N7.2 billion from wheat grain levy and N1 million from flour levy.

The service also stated that N41.7 billion of the revenue  was realised from five per cent value added tax (VAT) while N131.8 million was from National Export Supervision Scheme (NESS).

Other special levies, which provided revenue during the period, according to NCS, are comprehensive import supervision scheme and ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, which accounted for N10.5 billion and N6.3 billion, respectively.

A further analysis of the revenue figure showed that N2.6 billion was collected from 100 per cent rice levy, N79.2 million from brown rice levy and N112.5 million from steel levy.

According to the document, textile levy accounted for N24.1 million, N4.8 million from wine, cement levy, N274.9 million and N135 million from cigarette levy.

Meanwhile, the Comptroller General of NCS, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi has expressed worry over the issuance of official circulars without his consent.
However,  the NCS boss has embarked on measures to curtail the trend. To this end, he has issued barring the issuance of any circular without his expressed permission.

Abdullahi through Assistant Comptroller General (Headquarters), Mr. Dan Ugo, has issued circular number 02/2014 titled “Issuance of Circulars without the Consent of the Comptroller-General of Customs.”

“I am directed to draw your attention to the above subject matter and convey the Comptroller-General of Customs’ directive that all official circulars must receive the consent of the Comptroller-General of Customs. Any officer who fails to heed to this directive would be held accountable for such action, please,” the circular said.

It was  addressed to all Deputy Comptroller-Generals (DCGs), Assistant Comptroller-Generals (ACGs), Zonal Coordinators, and Unit Heads of all Customs formations across the country.

(Source-Business News)