Clearing agents under the aegis of Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN) have expressed doubts over the possibility of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to meet its N1.1trillion revenue target for 2017.
Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Ali had at a meeting with Area Controllers at the weekend in Abuja disclosed NCS had been given a N1.1 trillion revenue target for the 2017 fiscal year.
President of the association, Frank Ukor in a chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY, said given the current economic situation in the country, such a target is unrealizable except government reviews some of its fiscal policies.
“Except government change its fiscal policies, such target is not realizable. People should be able to get foreign exchange conveniently and at a cheaper rate than what they are getting now, that is why people are not importing and when people don’t import how would they generate the money?
“With the situation of things in the country and with the level of corruption among officers, that target is not feasible,” he said.
Ukor also condemned the practice whereby government imposes annual revenue target on Customs saying that such does not promote trade facilitation.
Another agent, Ugochukwu Nnadi said the N1.1trillion target is unrealistic due to low volume of import occasioned by the unavailability of foreign exchange.
He said rather than setting revenue target on imports, Customs should focus more on generating revenue from exports.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.