The sharp decline in the volume of imported cargo through the Apapa port is currently taking a toll on the federal government import revenue as the Apapa Customs command which is the largest in revenue generation for the Service lost a whooping N13billion import duty in three months.
Controller of the command, Comptroller Willy Egbudin who briefed newsmen recently on the activities of the command in the first quarter said the command generated a total of N61.7 billion in the first three months of the year.
This represents a N13 billion decline when compared to the N74.71 billion collected in the corresponding period of 2015.
He said that the situation in 2015 was quite different from what is obtainable now as more cargoes were imported in the corresponding year.
“If revenue collection continues to drop in flagship command of the Nigeria Customs Service, I wonder how other commands will get their own revenue. Apapa Area Command is the flagship of Nigeria Customs Service and if revenue generation from Apapa is going down, that means revenue generation as a whole to the Customs will go down. That is why we the stakeholders and the officers in Apapa command must fashion out a way of improving on its revenue.
“Even when these vessels come in, they come with scanty number of containers; bulk cargoes no longer come the way they used to, because some of the items have been denied forex by the Central Bank of Nigeria,” he said
Egbudin therefore urged importers and their agents to embrace honest declaration in order to assist the command collect more revenue even as he reemphasised the need for officers and other key stakeholders in trade facilitation to uphold integrity in their line of duty.
He said integrity on the part of all stakeholders will bring about improved revenue collection for the command.
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