The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has recorded an impressive performance in its revenue generation drive and anti-smuggling campaign in 2013.
Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Willy Egbudin while reviewing activities for the year in Seme yesterday disclosed that the command collected N8.5 billion as against the N7.9billion recorded in 2012.
Giving an insight into the command’s revenue profile, Egbudin said although the command had a monthly target of N1.095billion which translates to about N13.1billion annually, it generated an unprecedented revenue of 1.260billion in December 2013 which is the highest in three years in the history of the command.
Egbudin said that the increase in the command’s revenue profile was as a result of effective anti-smuggling campaign and several meetings held with traditional rulers and other stakeholders.
He added that measures are also been put in place to address one of the challenges facing the command in the area of transitting of imported vehicles from Benin Republic.
“This is an area I looked into since I came in because it is going to enhance our revenue. I have met with Customs of Benin and this issue form part of our discussion and they said they are ready to do it. Our CG has also contacted the Benin Customs CG and I’ve also discussed with him on phone and he was interested in looking at the problem. Even the customs officers attaches in Benin have been meeting with them and I have a report that they have actually agreed to hand these vehicles to us.So we are very close in tieing up that area and with the look of things in a very short time, it will materialize,” he said.
In the area of smuggling, Egbudin said the command recorded a total of 1, 102 seizures of various goods with a Duty paid Value (DPV) of N548million as against the 480 seizures made in the corresponding year of 2012 with a dpv of N227million.
He said the 29 suspects arrested in connection with the seizures are at various stages of investigation and prosecution.
The seized items include vegetable oil, motor vehicles, rice, frozen poultry products, second hand clothing, shoes and bags.
On the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) which was designed to encourage trade among West African Countries, Egbudin said the revenue loss as a result of the concession amount to N1.987billion while the 1 percent CISS amounted to N63.7million.
On export, the command facilitated the export of made in Nigeria goods with Free on Board (FOB) value of N10.2billion while the total Nigeria Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) collection amounts to N53million in the review period.
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