From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Controller General (CG) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Bashir Adewale has disclosed the negative effect of waivers on customs’ revenue generation effort, saying that last year alone, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received waivers amounting to N1.3 trillion.
Responding to the call by the Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Bello Shehu, to make sure that waivers that do not comply with extant laws are minimised, the CG said in Abuja on Wednesday that the service is funded from 4 per cent freight on board (FOB) values of imports, revenue derived from the assessment and collection of cost-based user fees; annual or supplementary budgetary provisions; grants and aides.
“Our revenues are derived from the assessment and collection of cost-based user fees; annual or supplementary budgetary provisions made by the government to the service; and grants, aids, or donations from local or international development partners,” he said.
According to him, NCS is equally empowered by Section 4 of the NCS ACT 2023 to collect and account for revenue from import duties, excise duties, and other taxes as well as levies.
“The service receives an annual revenue targets from the Federal Government. For the year 2023, the NCS was given a target of 3.684 trillion and generated the sum of 3.206 trillion, which represents 87 per cent of the total revenue target” the CG, stated.
Earlier, Shehu had expressed worry over the quantum of revenue leakage and sought ways to block the leakages.
In his opinion, all government monies stashed away in commercial banks should be recovered and the government should make deliberate efforts to reduce waivers that are not in tandem with extant laws.