By Ajibola Adedoye
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Murtala Muhammed Airport Command has announced a whopping sum of Ninety billion, four hundred and twenty six million, one hundred and eighty five thousand, and four hundred and forty seven naira only ( (90, 426,185,447. 01) as revenue generated through customs duty and other charges in 2023.
Comptroller MS Yusuf, the Command’s Area Controller who made this known on Wednesday said the total revenue collected by the command in 2022 stood at Sixty nine billion, seven hundred and sixty eight million, five hundred and ninety seven thousand and seventy nine naira. (69, 768,509,597.79).
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He stressed that the over N90 billion collected in 2023 clearly shows a progressive difference of Twenty million, Six hundred “and ‘fifty seven million, “six hundred seventy five thousand and eight ‘hundred and forty nine naira ‘only (39820,657,675,849.22) depicting (29.61%) increase of collection.
The controller also hinted that the Command intercepted non-compliant goods with a duty paid value of Forty Seven Billion, Two Hundred and Seven Million, Four Hundred And Twenty Four Thousand, Three Hundred And Eighty Nine Naira and Eighty Four Kobo Only (47,207,424,389.84).
The CAC attributed the difference recorded in revenue collected in 2022 and 2023 to the resilience of officers in ensuring that agents were made to do proper declarations and made to adhere strictly to import/export guidelines in tandem with extant laws.
In its fight against anti smuggling activities, Comptroller MS Yusuf stated that the officers and men of the Command were not resting on their oars in enforcing government fiscal policies and other trade guidelines.
According to him, this resulted to the command recording a total of Ten seizures in 2023.
He listed the seized items to include ‘Tramadol, Military camouflage jackets, Military hard wares, counterfeit, medicaments, Dried shark fins and Dried donkey genitals with the cumulative Duty Paid Value (DPV) of Forty Seven Billion, Two Hundred and Seven Million, Four Hundred And Twenty Four Thousand, Three Hundred And Eighty Nine Naira and Eighty Four Kobo Only (47,207,424,389.84).
According to him, the items were seized mainly because of various forms of infractions which range from false declarations, non-compliance with the estimated threshold and failure to comply with other extant regulations as enshrined in the Nigeria Customs Service Act (NCS ACT).
“It will interest you to note that most of the relevant items have been handed over to concerned sister agencies in ‘the spirit of inter agency collaboration,” he stressed.
In the area of stakeholders’ engagement, the Command maintained its open-door policy and resolved a lot of issues of common interest with concerned stakeholders.
Comptroller MS Yusuf appreciated the command’s critical stakeholders, sister agencies and the media for their collaborative efforts and synergy while the command carries out its statutory mandate.