By Isaac Anumihe
The Federal Government’s ban on importation of vehicles through the land borders and rice has taken its toll on the revenue of Seme Customs Area Command as collections dipped from N1, 521,359,564.73 in December 2016 to N594,195,311.23 in January 2017.
This trend is likely to continue because vehicle importation through the land border contributes 50 per cent revenue to the command.
The Customs Public Relations for the command, Mr Taupyen Selechang, attested to this fact in a statement, saying that the source of the revenue generated is dominated by imported general goods.
He said that the Command also made 43 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N92,385,870.00.
Also commenting on the revenue figure, the Customs Area Controller, Dimka Victor, said that the effect of the policy has no negative implication to the Nigeria Customs Service because the revenue that was lost at the border is gained at the seaport.
He, however, maintained that every officer must ensure total compliance so that the policy will succeed.
The command’s helmsman enjoined his officers and men to work assiduously to give their best to the service in a challenging time like now.
Dimka restated that as the busiest land border command, strategically located along the corridor that links other West African countries, the command cannot afford to fail because much is expected from it.
He assured that the command will continue to perform her statutory functions of revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade, combating of smuggling activities across the frontier and securing the nation’s territorial integrity among others adding that the anti-smuggling unit of the command is already frustrating the attempt of smugglers who try the might of the government in smuggling fairly-used vehicles through the land border.
In another development, Dimka lamented the absence of facilities (baggage hall, parking space, examination bay, functional scanner etc), saying that the absence of the equipment makes it difficult for the command to operate in line with the global best practices.
He said this when the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs Zone ‘A’ Abueh, M.N visited the Seme Area Command. ENDS