The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it was able to generate only N385.7billion as revenue in the fist half of this year. This amount is 22.9 per cent short of the N500billion it is expected to collect during the period out of its one trillion 2016 revenue target.
The amount collected during the period also falls short of the N438.2 billion generated in the same period in 2015, amounting to 12 per cent a year-on-year drop.
While speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Monday, Customs National Public Relations Officer, Wale Adeniyi, said the service generated N197.7 billion from import duties in cash and generated N203 million from import duty in non-cash receipts as Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate (NDCC).
He said that N21.876 billion was generated from excise duty; N910. 995 million from fees; N41. 418 billion from federation account levies and N49. 357 billion from non-federation accounts levies.
Adeniyi said that the service generated N74. 282 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT) during the period.
He attributed the year-on-year revenue loss to economic recession.
“Access to foreign exchange and the drastic fall in the value of naira have also affected the service’s revenue generation,” he said.
The NCS said that the removal of the 41 items from the CBN foreign exchange window affected the revenue generation by the service.
“However, there are positive indications that the economy may bounce back in the last quarter of the year.”
“We (customs) are working with Western neighbour of Benin Republic to strengthen our transit trade, particularly with vehicles.
“So, we expect that this will have a positive effect on our service revenue generation in the last quarter,” Adeniyi added.
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