Business
Customs Blames New Forex Policy For Poor Revenue Generation
The Comptroller General
of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (rtd), has revealed that the agency generated revenue below its expectants target due to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’S) new forex policy and increase in volume of credit.
Ali who made this known while briefing the Senate Committee on Finance led by Senator John Enoh on the performance of the agency in Abuja disclosed that it lost a total of N138.9bn out of the N390bn it expected to generate within the months of January – May, 2016.
According to him, “Nigeria lost a total of N138.9 billion, representing 35.5 per cent in income generation from the agency between January and May, 2016”.
He hinted that the amount generated was from import duty, Valued Added Tax, rice levy, Port Harcourt Surcharge and other levies.
The Customs boss disclosed that they were able to generate N251.8 billion out of which N211,124,434,386.60 remitted into the federation account and the sum of N40,591,872,059.41 was generated into the non-federation account.
Ali explained further that during the period, the agency was in deficit of N18,416.67 billion expected revenue in the month of January, 2016.
He disclosed that the outfit lost N27,176,737,878.21 billion in February instead of N78,110,936,416.67 expected, as well as lost the sum of N32,304,439,625.98 billion from N78,110,936,614.67 in April, while in the month of May, it lost N32,039,511,153.56 from the expected generation revenue of N78,110,936,416.67 billion.
“With this we have 35 per cent less than what we are supposed to have generated,’ he noted, adding that the CBN forex policy had become a big problem, as people are no longer importing goods into the country.