By Zika Bobby
With daunting challenges of drastic downturn on economic activities through the Lagos-Abidjan corridor, the Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Command, has generated a total of N5.3 billion from January to October 2017.
Commenting on the total revenue generated for the period under review, the Customs Area Comptroller, Mohammed Aliyu, said the feat was achieved with the cooperation of his officers and men, whose resilience and doggedness could not be compromised in implementing the policy of the Federal Government banning the importation of rice and vehicles through the land borders.
He said the anti-smuggling unit of the command made a total of 469 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N508, 469,776.32 for the period under review.
Aliyu said the intensified and aggressive anti-smuggling operations in the command have led to a drastic reduction in revenue leakages, adding that this has also curbed most cross border crimes perpetrated through the land border.
He said the command generated the sum of N678, 237,118.22 as revenue for the month of October 2017 while 123 seizures were made with a duty paid value of N184, 366,505.00 for the same month under review.
On the movement of goods through the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), which was adopted to promote regional trade and integration, Aliyu said under his watch the command is committed to the implementation of extant laws regarding transit scheme.
He stressed that the rule of origin and the enterprise list were strictly used to ensure that infractions to evade duty through false declaration are avoided, while legitimate ECOWAS goods within the West Africa Sub region are facilitated through the scheme.
“For the period under review, the ECOWAS compliant goods with CIF value of N11, 192,249,590.01 were cleared through the corridor, the one percent comprehensive import supervision scheme fee amounted to N111, 694,121.61 with revenue loss of N3, 141,661,339.47,” he said.
He noted that the command, in compliance with government policy of encouraging the export of home made goods has facilitated the export of made in Nigeria goods with FOB value of N9, 919,324,238.49 and a total NESS collection of N49, 598,169.64.
He said the performance of the functional scanner machine has saved the command from sponsored petitions of alleged smuggling of weapons into the country through the land borders.