Founder of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has advised the Federal Government not to set revenue target for the Nigeria Customs Service in 2016.
Aniebonam who was guest at a forum organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) on Friday, noted that setting revenue targets for the customs service is inimical to trade facilitation.
The frontline freight forwarder equally called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set in motion a process of reviewing the port concession agreement signed with the port concessionaires in 2006.
He noted that despite the port concession exercise, the cost of doing business at Nigerian ports has continued to rise.
Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Col. Hameed Alli (rtd) had said recently that the service collected a total of N903 billion in 2015 out of a target of N954 billion.
Alli noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy on the importation of 41 items denied the Customs revenue collection to the tune of N240 billion in 2015.
But speaking at the MARAN Secretariat, Aniebonam said that “Customs revenue, we have said severally is not a do or die affair, it is dependent on cargo throughput and cargo traffic, rate of duty applicable, the value of the consignment”
“If you go outside this country to import cargo and you make genuine declaration for customs purpose, the duty will come out on its own”
“So this idea of setting revenue target and people are working hard to meet the target is part of the problem of international trade in Nigeria, it is one of the major reasons why things are not working well in the port”
He also said that what customs should rather focus its effort on is compliance by all operators. He said that the major factor that affected the customs revenue last year was smuggling, false declaration, under-valuation and concealment.
“It is not all about foreign exchange, the issue of smuggling also comes in, when you smuggle goods into Nigeria, definitely government has lost revenue”
“So, meeting the targets is not important, what is important is the compliance level by all operators, all they need to do is increase supervision and enforcement level” Aniebonam said.
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