Customs inches towards N3.1tr 2022 revenue target ..Laments continued importation of tramadol, psychotropic substances

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has disclosed that it is committed to meeting its N3.1 trillion revenue generation target in the 2022 budget.

Zonal Coordinator, Zone A Command, Yaba, ACG A.M Aremu and the Area Comptroller, Apapa Area Command, M.I Yusuf disclosed this to the chairman and members of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise in Lagos on Monday.

Members of the committee were on an oversight function to the various Customs commands and formations in Lagos to assess their performance and the challenges they are facing.

In his address at the two commands, the Chairman of the House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide charged the officers of the service on the need to meet the revenue target, which he said is key to the funding of the national budget.

Abejide said: “This is to inspect your revenue collections so far, from January 2022 till date, in order to evaluate the possibility of meeting up with the target of N3.1 trillion given to the service in this fiscal year 2022.”

The zonal coordinator, zone A, said the zone collects 80% of the entire revenue generation of the

Nigeria Customs.

Aremu noted that the service was committed to meeting the N3.1 trillion revenue target adding that, they had already realised N1.2 trillion at present.

She however lamented that the absence of scanners was a major challenge, which is forcing the NCS to resort to physical inspection that is cumbersome.

On his part, the Comptroller, Apapa Area Command, ACG M.I Yusuf who reeled out the achievements and challenges facing the command said, despite the challenges, they have recorded remarkable success in both operations and revenue collection.

“In the

year

2021,

this command collected a total of N870.39 billion as annual revenue collection, which shows a significant increase of about 68% when compared with the collection of N518.4bn in 2020.

“We probably would have made higher collection last year if not for the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a reduced movement of vessels in the entire supply chain.

“In the same vein, this command collected and accounted for N264 billion into government coffers in the first quarter of this year (JanMarch) and has so far collected a total of N434.74 billion as at the end of May 2022”.