2017: Customs Generates 183 Billion At Tin Can Port

The Nigeria Customs Service has raked in one hundred and eighty-three billion naira (N183,000,000,000) from January to August 2017 at the Tin Can Island Port Command.

This was revealed in a statement made available to MMS Plus by the command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Uche Ejesieme, who noted that the Command generated one hundred and eighty-three (183) billion between January and August, 2017 as against the sum of one hundred and fifty-six (156) billion during the same period in reference, despite global economic recession.

“The revenue for August alone stood at over twenty-eight (28) billion, which is the highest in the annals of the Command, particularly in the corresponding periods over the years past. It therefore implies that save the exclusion of forty-one (41) items from Forex window, the Command could have doubled its revenue profile” the statement read.

According to the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Comptroller Bashar Yusuf, this increase in revenue collection shows that the Command is becoming more thorough in its revenue drive, to the extent that all high yielding income consignments are closely monitored to avoid circumvention of  the procedure.

According to the statement, the CAC pointed out that all officers/men of the Command have a compelling need to discharge their functions in line with the change mantra of the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd). Meanwhile, the CAC has vowed to sustain and surpass the revenue target of the Command in line with the expectations of the Nigeria Customs Service Management.

“Customs high Command expects so much from us and as such we will continue to develop adequate operational template and modalities that will be capable of entrenching integrity in the acumen of our operations.

The CAC appreciated the compliance level of stakeholders in the Port to fiscal policies of the Federal Government in terms of trade and advised few recalcitrant ones to toe the path of sanity through honest declaration in their documentations noting that integrity, due diligence, honest declarations and transparency are key elements in 21st Century Customs Operations.

The controller further spoke about the importance of leadership to success and advised O/C Terminals and other senior officers to exhibit a high moral/ethical standard that would showcase quality leadership for the actualization of set goals and objectives.

“High cargo traffic is usually expected at this period of the year and I advise importers to desist from importing uncustomed goods in view of its implication. All Importers ought to be conversant with the external tariff, especially schedules 3 & 4 (prohibition other than trade and absolute prohibition)”. The statement read in part.

In the same vein, he called on patriotic Nigerians, to oblige the Command with credible information about illicit transactions or documentation, promising that the identity of such informant would be jealously guarded.