By Steve Agbota
The Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders (APFFLON) has warned the Federal government not to stop the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of its responsibility of revenue collection.
Recall that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, during a public hearing on a bill to repeal the Customs and Excise Management Act (2004) and the Nigeria Customs Service (Establishment) Bill had recommended that the revenue collection responsibility should be transferred to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) while the NCS facilitates trade.
President of APFFLON, Frank Ogunojemite, argued that instead of the proposed move, the government should review the Customs Act with a view to removing bottlenecks impeding trade facilitation.
Ogunojemite stated this while addressing newsmen during AFFLON’s end of the year party in Lagos, said that there has not been any gap in the revenue collection function of Customs to justify the takeover by FIRS.
According to him, the Service has often met and surpassed its annual revenue target thereby contributing to the nation’s economy. He said what the government should do is to review the process and the Customs Act.
“Customs has been collecting revenue for a long time and there hasn’t been any issue about it. They have always met and exceeded their target. So, asking the Federal Inland Revenue to take over Customs function of revenue collection will not make any difference because FIRS is also a government agency.
“The government must be sensitive in taking decisions on this. The Customs should be revived to wake up to its responsibilities rather than to strip off collection of revenue functions,” he said.
On the move to create an autonomous Customs regulatory body that is separate from the supervision of the Ministry of Finance, he said it is not possible for Customs to be autonomous because they are under the Federal Ministry of Finance.
He said Customs needs to be checked and there must be checks and balances, saying that saying Customs current place under the supervision of the ministry are the best.