The Nigeria Customs Service on Friday said it generated the sum of N1.2tn as revenue for the 2018 fiscal period.
The service said this in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Mr Joseph Attah.
The statement said the N1.2tn was an increase of N164.89bn over the 2017 collection of N1.03tn.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), described the revenue collected as the result of various reforms implemented by the service.
He said the reforms were anchored on the dogged pursuit of what was right rather than being populist by compromising national interest on the altar of individual or group’s interests.
The CG said the reforms included the upgrade of the electronic systems from Nigeria Integrated Customs Information System I to NICIS II, which had blocked leakages.
Other reforms, he said, were the strategic deployment of manpower, strict enforcement of extant guidelines by the Tariff and Trade Department, robust stakeholder engagement resulting in increased compliance and increased disposition of officers and men to put national interest above selves.
The statement also said the NCS had reinvigorated anti-smuggling operations, adding that during the period, a total of 5,235 seizures with duty paid value of N61.54bn were recorded.
The seizures include arms, ammunition, over 59 containers of Tramadol and other controlled drugs and 320,709 bags of foreign rice.
The statement read in part, “Though smuggling remains a challenge, the service’s three layers security strategy continues to make smuggling unattractive to the would-be smugglers.
“While the service continues to deal decisively with smugglers, fellow citizens, especially border dwellers and port users are advised to support the NCS by reporting any smuggling activity to the nearest Customs formation.
“Together we can protect our economy and security by joining hands to fight smuggling and ensure that appropriate customs duty is paid on every dutiable import.”
The service called for support from the stakeholders to enable it to achieve its objectives in 2019.
