The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has approved a budget of N1.132 trillion for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for the 2025 fiscal year.
The approval was granted during a budget defence session held on Monday, where Bello Jibo, Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Finance, Administration, and Technical Services, presented the budget on behalf of the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi.
The NCS has set a revenue target of N6.584 trillion for 2025. Of this amount, N3.853 trillion is earmarked for the Federation Account, N1.081 billion for the non-Federation Account, and N1.650 trillion is expected from import Value Added Tax (VAT). The Service also anticipates earning N1.070 trillion from 4% Free-On-Board (FOB) charges, N33.01 billion from its 2% VAT share, and N29.05 billion to fund ongoing capital projects.
The proposed budget includes allocations of N247.16 billion for personnel costs, N239.97 billion for overheads, and N645.42 billion for capital expenditure.
Despite granting the budget approval, the committee issued a stern warning to the Customs Service, setting a deadline of June 30 to cease the collection of the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) levy and the 7% Cost of Collection.
The committee threatened legal action should the Service continue to collect the levies beyond that date, arguing that both charges are no longer supported by the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023.
Chairman of the committee, Leke Abejide, voiced the directive after a unanimous voice vote by members. He criticised the ongoing collection of these levies, which he said lack statutory backing and have been explicitly discontinued under the current legal framework.
He pointed out that from January to December 2024, there was no remittance from the 60% share of the 1% CISS levy, revenue that was previously used to support personnel, overhead, and capital project costs.
Abejide questioned the rationale behind continuing the CISS collection, noting that it was originally introduced to fund foreign service providers such as Cotecna, SGS, and Global Scan for pre-shipment inspections and valuation services, and Web Fontaine Limited for automation support. However, he argued, more than 80% of those responsibilities are now being handled internally by the Nigeria Customs Service.
He expressed concern that, despite the NCS exceeding its 2024 revenue target by over N1 trillion — generating N6.105 trillion against a target of N5.079 trillion — funding for critical budgetary items remained low. Performance stood at just 43.53 percent for personnel costs, 46.34 percent for overheads, and 45.68 percent for capital projects. Abejide insisted that only the 4% FOB charge, as stipulated in Section 18(1a) of the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, is legally recognised as a revenue source.
He warned that if the Service continues to collect the CISS levy or the 7% Cost of Collection beyond June 30, it would face legal consequences.
He stressed that Nigeria is now a democracy, not a military regime, and said these levies originated under military rule through executive fiat — a practice that has no place under the current legal order. Abejide added that any further collection of the illegal levies from July 1 would be met with the full force of the law.
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