The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has faulted the policy of giving revenue targets to agencies of governments, such as the Nigeria Customs Service.
The LCCI, at its third quarter press briefing on the state of the economy in Lagos on Wednesday, noted that the idea of giving targets to revenue generating agencies could result in some unintended consequences.
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has faulted the policy of giving revenue targets to agencies of governments, such as the Nigeria Customs Service.
The LCCI, at its third quarter press briefing on the state of the economy in Lagos on Wednesday, noted that the idea of giving targets to revenue generating agencies could result in some unintended consequences.
The Federal Government had last week said it had raised the revenue targets of the Nigeria Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service in order to make more money available in view of dwindling crude oil revenue.
According to the chamber, there is a risk that best practice principles will be compromised by the agencies in the desperation to meet set targets.
The President, LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello, stated that there were already negative manifestations in the manner of import valuation by the Customs.
He added, “Reports reaching the chamber indicate many instances of upward review of values of imports in complete disregard to the values of invoices of such imports.
“Importers have been made to pay import duty and other charges that are far beyond what they ordinarily should have paid. Many investors have suffered untold hardship as a result of this practice, especially when there is no effective dispute resolution system in place.”
The chamber also noted that the downward trend of oil price in international market is a setback for Nigeria’s economy.
The LCCI President said that the current scenario of sliding oil price from $114 per barrel in June to $85 per barrel now, was the lowest the price has fallen in three years with implications for the capacity of government, at all levels, to meet their statutory obligations.
He said: “On top of that, we are struggling with the problem of crude oil theft which is taking its toll on output. For an economy that is 95 per cent dependent on oil for its foreign exchange earnings and 85 per cent dependent on it for revenue, this development should be a cause for concern.”
He noted that the declining oil price meant reduction in revenue inflows, lamenting that most states were hugely dependent on statutory allocations from sale of oil, thereby making the impact of the price decline became very profound.
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