Senate Probes Alleged N4tr Revenue Leakage In Customs
An Investigation has commenced under the Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, in the Senate into how over N4 trillion was lost at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) between 2006 and 2016. It decried the inability of the Technical Committee on the Implementation of Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme to ensure compliance with its provisions.
The customs has a yearly target to improve the nation’s revenue. But it has been dogged by allegations of corruption. An investigation may engender transparency in its operations . It may also lead to the recovery of the lost N4trillion revenue which is 57 per cent of the N7.2 trillion national budget for 2017 by the Federal Government . Such recovered funds will be deployed by the government for good governance that will ultimately improve the citizens’ wellbeing.
The committee has however vowed to recover the funds that were lost. According to the Chairman of the committee, Hope Uzodinma (PDP, Imo West), a preliminary investigation revealed that the alleged malfeasance resulted mainly from the abuse and non-implementation of Form M (foreign exchange forms). He added that other factors responsible for the leakage were wrong classification of cargo under HS Code (Harmonised System Codes), non-screening of cargoes coming into Nigeria and lack of adequate Internet and Communications Technology (ICT infrastructure), among others.
