Senate laments dwindling in Customs revenue, resolve to summon the CG
The Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has lamented the sudden dwindling of the Nigeria Customs revenue over the years.
In a bid to curtail this unfortunate situation, the senate has resolved on Thursday to summon the Comptroller General of Customs to appear before it and explain why they (Customs) got to where they are today.
Speaking at the committee inaugural meeting, the committee Chairman, Sen. Francis Alimikhena said their mandate is to unearth shading practices going in customs if any and block leakages in customs revenue collection among other things.
“We are here to draw our work plans for the next four years, to stop the leakages in Customs revenue collection.
“In order to achieve that we have resolved to summon the CG to appear before us,” he said.
He continues, “Why Customs has becomes the number three revenue collector in Nigeria behind; FIRS and NNPC, despite they are the only agency that collect excise duties,” Sen. Alimikhena queried.
He noted that where Customs do well they are going to commend them and where the fail to do, they won’t hesitate to reprimand them.
You will recall that Customs over the years has being the number agency with the highest revenue generation in the country, but suddenly has dropped to three places behind the FIRS and the NNPC, a situation Sen. Alimikhena led 9th Assembly senate committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has found worrisome and it’s ready to unearth the brain behind that.
It will be recalled that in 2017 the senate committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff had a serious altercation with the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), over his refusal to wear customs uniform before appearing to the committee.
