Customs Seek Prompt Payment of Duties

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has stepped up a campaign to ensure that duty accruable to government was promptly paid into the federation account.

The service launched the campaign following the increasing number of defaulting firms in the country.

The Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Colonel Hammed Ibrahim Ali (retired) disclosed this while taking a tour of about 13 excisable factories in Lagos.

Ali who was represented by the Zonal Co-ordinator, Zone A, Assistant Controller General of Customs (ACG) Charles Edike said the move was to ensure that the duty accruable to government was paid promptly, especially by defaulting firms.

According to the Customs Chief, the weeklong tour was necessary considering the low container traffic in the ports and the sharp fall in import duty. Given the economic downturn, NSC had to re-strategise and innovate on ways of boosting government revenue by focusing on other sources permissible by the law.

He expressed optimism that the effort would shore up revenue from NCS to government, considering the lull at the seaports, the major revenue source.

His words: “This initiative to visit the excise factories is to encourage the excisable factories and at the same time ensure that every kobo owed government is paid. With import volume down due to the general business outlook, we decided to intensify efforts in this regard to get the revenue from factories producing alcoholic beverages. The customs has been collecting revenue from the identified excise factories, but doing this is to make them live up to date with paying their duty.”

Operators of some of the factories however complained of scarcity and skyrocketed price of ethanol, a major raw material used for the production of their products.

According to them, the scarcity of the material had caused them to produce epileptically, and sometimes on orders only. Some of the factories also complained of scarcity of packaging materials like bottles, resulting from complaints by such producers who consider the high production cost.