The Nigerian Senate has informed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) that the agency’s 2024 revenue target of N5.079 trillion will be reconsidered upwards in the latter part of the year to prevent additional borrowing for the country.
Senator Isah Jibrin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, conveyed this message during a significant meeting with Adewale Adeniyi, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, and senior officials of the revenue agency.
- He said; “First of all, Nigeria is saddled with lot of debt obligations and we need to wriggle ourselves out of that trap and one of the ways to do that is internally generated revenue. Customs is one of the major providers of internally generated revenue and as it is today, we expect them to play one of the major roles in this drive to reduce our debt burden.
- “We need to pay off what we are owing now and minimise additional loans we are going to take. Customs is in a very good position, if they are able to block all perceived leakages, they should be able to generate significant amount of income that will enable Nigeria get out of debt, at least partially.”
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Responding to queries from legislators, Adewale Adeniyi, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), indicated that the service is requesting government approval to grant waivers to individuals who own smuggled vehicles, allowing them to rectify their Customs duty payments.
Adeniyi explained that if granted the approval, there would be a specified timeframe, perhaps three months, during which individuals possessing vehicles unlawfully imported or without duty payments could approach Customs House for duty assessment and payment.
He emphasized that ample publicity would precede this opportunity, ensuring that those in such circumstances could regularize their vehicles’ status by fulfilling duty payments.
Regarding the Naira exchange rate, Adeniyi expressed his dismay at the instability within the exchange rate system.
- He said; “In fact, even if it stays high and people can predict that this is what it will take me to clear, perhaps it is not particularly too bad, but when it is so volatile, today it is X, tomorrow it is X+10, X+20, it does not make for adequate planning and things like that.
- “Correctly, it is the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to fix the rate, either the one we use during Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF or the one we use for importation or the one used for payment of Customs duties. I have been in discussions with my minister. Perhaps, what you are going to advocate is that there would be a meeting point between authorities of government that are in charge of monetary policy and those in charge of fiscal policies.”
- “Personally, what I think we can do is to get a spot rate for a period of time. We can agree that for Q,Y 2024 this will be the spot rate for payment of Customs duties; we could say for the first half of the year,” the Customs boss added.
