The Minister of Finance; Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali were at loggerheads at the budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday, over increased remuneration for customs officers.
The Customs CG who expressed displeasure at the remuneration of men of the Service, argued that some other non-revenue collecting agencies of government receive better salaries that men of the Service, but was disagreed with by the Minister who advocated performance-based remuneration for men of the Customs Service, so as to discourage corruption.
The Minister vehemently opposed the Custosm CG’s request, a development which almost degenerated into a shouting match between the two to government functionaries.
The Minister explained that a review of the constraints currently impacting performance of the NCS had been undertaken. “This exercise found that the provision of modern equipment, elimination of inappropriate waivers and remuneration emerged as issues,” she stated. She disclosed further that a consulting firm has been hired and is working with the NCS to develop and implement a performance-based incentive plan to ensure that there was an alignment of interest between individual customs officers and the objectives of the Government.
She further explained, “appropriate remuneration of revenue collecting agencies to align the interests of staff with maximising collections is critical to motivate performance and to reduce temptation to compromise”. She told Senators that such a structure already existed in the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which was working well and needed to be extended to Customs.It took the intervention of Chairman Senate Committee on Finance; Senator John Enoh, to bring the heated argument to a stop. He urged the duo to calm down and expressed hope that the presidency will resolve the issue.
The Minister also highlighted that, being an import-dependent nation; there is room for improvement in revenue generation from the country’s ports. She stated that there was a disconnect between the volume of imports and the recorded revenues from NCS which would be addressed by the new strategy being deployed.
She expressed commitment to the provision of all modern equipment needed to minimise discretion in customs assessments and thus enhance revenue.
Corroborating the Minister’s position, the Comptroller-General of Customs, said the authorities are looking into areas of improving the performance of the Customs through deployment of technology solutions, training, upgrading of the agency’s infrastructure and improved welfare.
The Customs boss however told the committee that the federal government is considering stoppage of import duty waivers to two conglomerates; Dangote group and Stallion group.
Ali who also disclosed this said such big companies had no business being granted waivers.
According to him, if the big companies were given waivers, smaller companies should not be the ones to pay custom duties.
Adeosun also said that the ministry was also looking into customs duty waivers that had been granted to determine their benefits and recommend for a revocation where such waivers do not benefit Nigeria.
Discussion about this post