How N900bn Customs revenue target will cripple trade, port operations —Stakeholders

Stakeholders in the Nigerian maritime sector and cargo clearance chain have stated that the recent target of N900 billion set for Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) by the Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) will cripple trade and port operations.

It would be recalled that the NCS Comptroller General had told newsmen on the sidelines of the International Customs Day celebration held in Abuja that the service has proposed N900 billion as revenue target for 2017.

Speaking to Nigerian Tribune exclusively, the National President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Olayiwola Shittu explained that the N900 billion target set by the CG will impoverish Nigerian ports.

According to him, “With the CG’s statement of N900 billion revenue target for officers of the NCS, it is obvious that there is nothing to cheer about as regards revival of Nigeria’s economic situation.

“With that statement, corruption by officers of the NCS will persist at the ports and importers will keep diverting their cargoes away to neighbouring ports. All this will mean that nothing would change in Nigeria’s economic quagmire. We will still remain where we were just like last year. There is just nothing to cheer about.”

In a separate chat with the Nigerian Tribune, the President of the National Council of Managing Directors Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero explained that it was unfair to economy if the CG forces Customs to collect what they do not provide.

In his words, “World over, Customs are not subjected to revenue targeting because it amounts to forcing them to do what they are not conventionally set up to do. Trade itself is covered under articles that are domesticated.

“If the CG has said he expects N900 billion from his officers, he has put the officers under serious pressure to do what they were not set up to do in the first place.

“The CG ought to understand that currently, 90 per cent of Nigeria’s trade has collapsed, so where does he expect the officers to get the N900 billion from? If you go to the ports now, you will see that most of the things Customs are doing are not right, but it is not their fault. Their bosses are forcing them to do those things.

“Forex restrictions have stopped people from bringing in things into the country. Only few are doing that. The manufacturers are complaining because they don’t have forex to assist them bring in cargoes. Importers are also complaining. So how do the Customs raise that kind of revenue?

“The revenue Customs raised last year was down to deliberate skyrocketing of the exchange rate because the process of Form M was on N197, and the process of PAAR was on N197, but the process of accessing the duty was on N315.

“It was that deliberate skyrocketing of the exchange rate by the Customs that collapsed the economy.”

Amiwero explained that, “If an importer applies for Form M, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will issue an exchange rate. Since the CBN is in charge of monetary policies in Nigeria, they will issue an importer the exchange rate.

“According to import guideline of the CBN and the Federal Ministry of Finance, the exchange rate given on the Form M, once approved, is the exchange rate that should be used to access the duty.

“However, most of the exchange rates that were on Form M were not the exchange rates used in accessing the duty last year. It was jerked up, and that was what collapsed the economy. There was no predictability.

“There was a jerk up of almost 100 per cent and this made our imports very unpredictable. That is what collapsed Nigeria’s economy and that was how the Customs were able to raise what they earned last year.

“Customs world over are not talking about revenue today, they talk about security and trade facilitation. Trade facilitation has procedures, but in our ports, procedures are not followed.”