Senate Frowns At Revenue Decline From Customs, Orders Probe

The Senate on Wednesday started comprehensive probe into the activities of

the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) with a view to blocking all revenue

leakages and enhance generation.
The probe, launched by the Senate Committee on Customs and Excise, would

look into ways to increase revenue generation capacity of the service.

The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Hope Uzodimma, during an oversight

visit to the NCS headquarters in Abuja, said that service should generate

enough revenue to fund the nation's budget.
He expressed displeasure at a report by the Ministry of Finance, which

indicated that the NCS had generated less than N400 billion so far in

2016.
Speaking at the end of the visit, Uzodinma said that his committee might

re-enact the Act establishing the service for optimal performance.

“We are looking into the operations of Customs Service; looking at the

areas of revenue generation and possible leakages with a view to finding

solutions.
“We have done detailed work and we have established contacts with all

commands under the service.
“All we are interested in is to evolve a robust framework that will help

the NCS earn more revenue. “In order to do that effectively, we are

examining its current mode of operations with a view to refining how

things are done.
“By the time we finished looking at the operations of some of the ports,

we will come back and look at how best to amend the existing Act.

“We want to create a situation where the NCS will be able to fetch the

country the kind of revenue we are looking for from non-oil sector,'' he

said.
Speaking on the revelation that the service could not access some oil

companies for payment of levies, Uzodinma said that was part of the

impediments that require enabling laws.
“There are some limitations that have not made it possible for the Customs

service to perform its mandate the way it should. “Those are things that

we will also look into so as to remove all obstacles to enable it function

effectively,'' the committee chairman said. While interacting with the

Comptroller-General of the Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.), Uzodinma

requested that certain documents be submitted to enhance the committee's

probe.
The committee gave the service till Friday, Oct. 28 to submit the

documents and answer all the queries posed. It sought to know how the

seven per cent Negotiable Duty Credit was managed and how the service

handled seized cargoes and overtime cargoes.
The NCS is expected to render details of how it handles seized cigarette

and alcohol, record of auctioned overtime and seized cargoes. The

committee also demanded for record of all waivers granted in the last

three years, value of the waivers, detailed record of sugar levy and other

details of revenue accrual.
Uzodinma expressed displeasure at the inability of the service to collect

duty from oil companies, promising that a legislation to review the law

would be initiated. In his remark, the Custom CG, Col. Hameed Ali assured

that the NCS would give full cooperation to the committee. He directed NCS

officials to provide the committee with all the information and documents

it required.
The post Senate Frowns At Revenue Decline From Customs, Orders Probe appeared first on Pointblank News .