Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS),
retired Col. Hameed Ali, has said that the service had a
revenue shortfall of N230 billion in the last quarter of
2015.
Ali made the disclosure during a Consultative Forum
between Customs and the Manufacturers Association of
Nigeria (MAN) held at the Customs Training School, Ikeja,
Lagos.
He attributed the shortfall to the Central Bank of
Nigeria’s (CBN) policies, adding that the service pleaded
for sympathetic consideration by the CBN to review the
policies.
“Customs had also made progress in getting the
necessary approval for clearance of a huge backlog of
imports.
“Imports in respect of which forms `M’ were opened
before the commencement of the CBN foreign exchange
restriction of some imported items.
“Importers of such goods could not finalise Customs
clearance due to inability to obtain the Pre-Arrival
Assessment Report (PAAR).
“Relief has come for such importers as we (Customs)
have secured the go- ahead to waive the formalities and
allow them to pay duty,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) quotes Ali as saying.
The comptroller-general said that the service had re-
organised the Dispute Resolution Units and designated
experienced comptrollers to head the units for quick
resolution of disputes.
He said that all disputes arising from valuation and
classification were now referred to the units for
resolution.
Ali said that the service had been receiving complaints
about rates of duty and documentation processes which
differed from one port to the other.
He said that there was also the issue of different rates
among terminals in the same port.
The comptroller-general said emphasis would be on
professionalisation of Customs’ jobs, saying that the
vision of the management was to build a pool of highly-
skilled specialists.
He said specialisation would be in core areas like
Valuation, Classification, Rules of Origin, Excise,
Enforcement, Customs IT and Investigation.
(NAN)
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