Customs Generates N185bn In Three Months

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) generated
over N185.1 billion between January and March 2012, according to a document
issued by its headquarters in Abuja.

The document, made available to our
correspondent  in Abuja, showed that the
total revenue collected for the Federation Account was N111billion and N74
billion for non-federation account.

During the period, Negotiable Duty Credit
Certificate (NDCC) was N9.8 billion.

The document also indicated an increase in
import duty collected by the Customs in the first quarter of the year.

Collections from import duty rose to N36.3
billion in March as against N33.5 billion in February and N25.6 billion in
January.

However, revenue from excise duty declined
from N4.1 billion in January to N3.3 billion in February and increased
marginally to N3.5 billion in March.

Reports say that last week, the Minister of
State for Finance, Dr Yerima Ngama, praised the NCS for surpassing its revenue
targets last year.

Ngama said that the total revenue collected
by the service in 2011 was N741.83 billion, comprising N430.68 billion for the
federation account and N311.14 billion for non-federation account.

He said that the increased anti-smuggling
activities resulted in the seizure of 5,748 goods, including textiles, poultry,
used compressors, furniture and general goods.

The minister put the value of the seizures
made from January to December 2011 at N8.4 billion.

The Federal Government has given the
service a revenue target of N800 billion for 2012.