Customs Revenue Threatened as Seme Border Activities Are Badly Hampered
Activities at Nigeria’s Seme international land border, which links other West African countries and noted for its busy nature in vehicular and human traffic have been badly hampered, following the ban on importation of vehicle via the land borders and the current economic situation.
THISDAY investigation revealed that activities at the border, for the first time are at very low ebb, a development that has resulted in reduction in revenue generation.
Disturbed by the challenge and the state of this retrogressive phenomenon in the command’s revenue, the Customs Seme Command officials were said to have visited the Atlas Park and critical stakeholders to assess the situation and to know what can be done to reverse the trend.
The team, THISDAY learnt, had discovered to its chagrin, an empty park with some broken down/ empty trucks.
When contacted, the representative of the stakeholders and Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Seme Chapter, Lasisi Fanu attributed the prob- lem to low level of economic activities and the prohibition of importation of vehicles, new and old, through land borders by the federal government.
He added that the upward review of the value of imported goods by as much as 150 per cent by the Tariff and Trade Unit of the NCS to commensurate with the value of the goods and
cent by the Tariff and Trade Unit of the NCS to commensurate with the value of the goods and to meet the current economic realities was not favourable to importers
This, he stressed made several importers to resort to change of route and divert their goods to routes that are less harmful to their business.
Fanu added that the annual China breaks that usually takes place from January to February could also be a contributory factor to the low and dwindling revenue bedeviling the command.
He also said the current economic recession occasioned by the increase in foreign exchange affected importation of general goods into the country.