Controller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col.
Hameed Ali, retd, yesterday, said Nigeria lost a total of 138.9 billion,
representing 35.5% in income generation expected from the agency between
January and May, 2016. Naira-Dollar Naira-Dollar.
The development came
as the Senate Committee on Finance directed all the revenue generating agencies
in the country to henceforth prepare and submit reports of their performances
on quarterly basis to the committee for assessment.
But he said the agency generated the sum total of N312. 9bn
for the country within the period under review.
The amount generated, according to him, was from the Valued
Added Tax, VAT and the Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate, NDCC. Ali, who spoke
while briefing the Senator John Enoh-led Senate Committee on Finance, on the
performance of his organization, also disclosed that within the period, the
Nigeria Customs Service lost a total of N138.9bn out of the N390.6bn it was
expected to generate within the period.
He further disclosed
that the agency was able to generate the sum of N251.8bn out of which the sum
of N211.124,434,386.60 was generated for the federation Account with the sum of
N40,591,872,059.41 generated for Non federation Account. Giving breakdown of
revenue generation within the period, the Customs boss said “compared to last
year or what we are expected to generate, we are in deficit of
18,406,949,135.55 as against the sum of NN78,110,936,416.67 expected to be
generated in the month of January.” For the month of February, the customs,
according to Ali, lost N27,176,737,878.21 instead of N78,110,936.416.67 just as
the sum of N28,910,737,844.24 could not be realized from N78,110,936,416.67
expected in the month. The agency equally lost the sum of N32,304,439,625.98
from N78,110,936,416.67 in April just as it lost N32,039,511,153.56 from the
expected generation of the sum of N78,110,936,416.67 in the month of May. “With
this, it means we have 35% less than what we are supposed to have generated,
“he said.
He attributed the loss
to three variables among which according to him, included the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN’s new forex policy and increase in volume of credit. “The CBN
forex policy has become a big problem to trade, therefore people are not
importing and we are a nation that is dependent on importation. If people do
not import, there will be no duty paid and Customs we has nothing to collect.
“With this trend, there is no way we can, by any chance, meet the target set to
us. We are hoping and praying that with the release of the budget and with the
now relaxed forex market, we hope that traders will begin to pick up and import
things. If things do not improve, certainly, we are in big problem, “he said.
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