Customs Rakes N272m from E-auction of SeizedVehicles

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that it generated N272,115,366 from the auction of 646 vehicles under its electronic auction scheme.

Spokesman of the service, Joseph Attah, disclosed this in Lagos when he briefed journalists on the activities of the service in 2017.

Attah said the e-auction regime eliminates the manual process of auctioning seizures in the past which was lacking in transparency and did not yield maximum revenue for government.

‘’The introduction of the eauction process was based on the need to eliminate abuses associated with manual process of the past. This is to ensure maximum revenue from the process while still providing equal opportunity to all interested Nigerians to log on to the e- auction portal and bid for any item they wish

‘’The portal is opened to all interested persons to bid between 12noon Monday and 12noon Wednesday of every week. So far,646 number of vehicles have been won with N272,115,366 generated as revenue for the Federal Government’’ he said.

According to him, the customs will continue to be careful in the handling goods at its warehouses so as not to be dragged into unnecessary litigation by claimants as a result of illegal disposal.

Attah said the service is meticulous with seizures management as they are properly documented and kept in government warehouse or constructively warehoused (in the case of inflammable items) following which thorough investigations and compilations of case files are done ,

He added that while perishable items such as frozen poultry products and other dangerous items are immediately destroyed , others have to wait for judicial process of court condemnation before they can be disposed off in line with the law.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had issued a circular on the e-auction by NCS.

The circular was signed by CBN Director, Trade and Exchange Department, W.D. Gotring.

The central bank explained that the objective of the platform would be to improve efficiency,transparency and revenue generation to government on seized and overtime/ abandoned cargoes.

“This is to inform all authorised dealers and the general public that the NCS has deployed an electronic auction platform tagged “NCS eAuction.” The objective of the platform is to improve efficiency,transparency and revenue generation to government on seized and overtime/ abandoned cargoes.

“In view of this development, all authorised dealers are required to integrate with the NCS e-Auction platform for the recharging of e-Wallet and subsequent payment of the required fees for winning bids. Please ensure compliance accordingly,” it added