Customs Laments Dwindling Revenue, At Rivers Port

The Nigerian Customs
Service (NCS) Area One Command in Port Harcourt has decried the continuous dwindling of  its activities and revenue generation in Port Harcourt Port.
Speaking with The Tide in Port Harcourt, Thursday, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the area, Mr Samuel Harry, said his command is presently experiencing the lowest activities in its history.
He said that the command in the last few years had managed to meet up with the revenue targets given to it by the federal government.
According to him, activities took a down turn in the area when the federal government placed restriction on rice importation two years ago which he said affected the command’s operation.
The customs image maker noted that the current trend where importers of rice shun the port has made the bulk cargo operations of Port Harcourt more difficult.
On other bulk cargo items like fish, cement and petroleum products, the commands’ image maker posited that cement no longer comes to the ports whereas petroleum products are not dutiable.
For the fish, he said that only two vessels berthed at the port in the last three weeks, which according to him, was not encouraging.
The PRO also blamed the dwindling business on continuous rainfall which he said was not conducive for bulk cargo business operations.
He also blamed the poor business activities on the poor state of Industry Road, which according to him  has scared many importers from doing business at the port.
Harry explained also that many importers are afraid that their cargo may fall along the road, due to the  poor state of the road, before Rivers State government commenced repair work.

Corlins Walter