Tin-can Customs rakes in N183bn in 8 months

Harboursandport.com: Lagos---The Tin-can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS has collected N183 billion into the Federated account from January to August this year as against N156 billion it collected during the same period last year.

CAC Tin-can Island Command, Bashar Yusuf 

The Command highest revenue collection for the period was last month and was the sum N28 billion. The amount is the highest by the Command in several years, its Customs Area Controller, CAC, Bashar Yusuf stated.

The Customs boss said the huge revenue haul would have been more but for the global economic recession and the exclusion of forty-one (41) items from Forex window. Yusuf attributed the feat to the deliberate creative policies and stimulus plans aimed at blocking all possible areas of revenue loss.

He noted that the Command is being more thorough in its revenue drive by ensuring that all high yielding revenue consignments are closely monitored to avoid circumvention of procedure.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Command, Uche Ejesieme, noted that the CAC charged officers and men of the Command to brace up for the challenges as the Customs management expects so much from the them.

Yusuf assured officers and men that the Command will continue to develop adequate operational template and modalities for entrenching integrity in the performance of their duties.

Controller appreciated the compliance level of stakeholders in the port to fiscal policies of the federal government in terms of trade while advising few recalcitrant ones to toe the path of sanity through honest declaration in their documentations noting that integrity, due diligence, honest declarations and transparency are key elements in 21^st Century Customs Operations.

Similarly, he charged officers in charge of terminals and other senior officers to exhibit a high moral/ethical standard to showcase quality leadership for the actualization of set goals and objectives.

On his plans for the last four months of the year, the Customs boss pointed out that high cargo traffic is usually expected at this period of the year and advised importers to desist from importing prohibited goods warning of the implication.

According to him, “All Importers ought to be conversant with the external tariff, especially schedules 3 & 4 (prohibition other than trade and absolute prohibition)”.

He therefore called on patriotic Nigerians, to oblige the Command with credible information about illicit transactions or documentation, promising that the identity of such informant would be protected.