SHIPS & PORTS DAILY checks revealed that the various revenue-generating commands of the NCS across the country failed to meet the revenue target set for them by the Customs Headquarters.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had given the NCS a revenue target of N800 billion for 2012, but the Customs Management enforced on itself an additional N400 billion, bringing the revenue target to N1.2 trillion.
With the breakdown of revenue expected to be generated by the various commands in Zone ‘A’, the highest revenue collecting zone of the Service, the premier command, the Apapa Area 1 Command is expected to have generated a total sum of N324 billion, going by it N27 billion monthly target.
The Apapa Area 1 Command, which is referred to as the flagship of the Service, was only able to collect N266.971billion as revenue between January and the 18th of December, 2012, which shows a shortfall of about N57 billion.
SHIPS & PORTS DAILY recalls that the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Comptroller Mohammed Dahiru Umar, while briefing the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi, during his visit to the command last December, said that the command found it difficult to meet its target due to some external factors.
The Tin-Can Island Port Command also suffered the same fate, as it failed to meet its given target of N264 billion.
Expected to generate N22 billion monthly, the command was only able to record N189 billion from January to November, instead of N242 billion.
Even as the premier command failed to meet its revenue, all other commands could not meet theirs.
Commands such as Kirikiri Lighter Terminal (KLT) and Lilypond, saddled with monthly targets of N5 billion each, showed no signs of meeting up to expectations, as each recorded low cargo traffic.
The PTML Command, with its monthly target of N7.5 billion, was only able to rake in N33 billion in the first half of last year, although expected to generate N45 billion.
As much as the command strived, it did meet up with its monthly target in the rest of the year.
The self-imposed 2012 N1.2 trillion target obviously did not go down well with the commands, as none of the commands reported that it surpassed its monthly targets.
The NCS National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi, could not be reached for his comments on the total revenue collected by the Service last year.
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