BEVERLY HILLS, October 26, (THEWILL) – The Senate on Wednesday handed a 48-hour ultimatum to the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, to provide records of waivers since 2013 and also details of how it handles seized cigarettes and alcohol, record of auctioned overtime and seized cargoes.
This was as its Committee on Customs and Excise began a comprehensive probe into the activities of the Customs with a view to blocking all revenue leakages and look into ways to increase revenue generation capacity of the Service.
The committee specifically asked the NCS Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), to submit the records of all waivers granted in the last three years, value of the waivers, detailed record of sugar levy and other details of revenue accrual.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Hope Uzodimma, during an oversight visit to the NCS headquarters in Abuja, contended that the 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.
He said, “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.”
Reacting to 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.”
Commenting on the revelation that the Service could not access some oil companies for payment of levies, Uzodinma pointed out that it was part of the impediments that require enabling laws.
In his remark, the Comptroller-General of the Service, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.), assured that the NCS would give full cooperation to the committee, even as he directed NCS officials to provide the committee with all the information and documents it required.
Story by Ugonnabo Ngwu
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