Customs Duties and other charges totally N27, 841, 830. 732 have been lost to the implementation of the Export Expansion Scheme between January and June this year.
A statement issued in Abuja last week by the public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Wale Adeniyi attributed to the use of Negotiable Duty Credit Certificate (NDCC) to cover Import and Excise
Duties that would have been paid by beneficiaries of the Export
Expansion Grant Scheme (EEG).
According to him, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi confirmed the duty loss and expressed the concern of the Service on what he described as an unfolding ugly trend in the implementation of the scheme.
“It was the same trend in 2009. During the first half of the year, the nation had lost N 12.5 billion to NDCC. This on the surface should translate to increase activities in the export sector, with its multiplier effects. Unfortunately, our record has not supported that position”, he added.
He quoted the Customs boss as challenging beneficiaries of the scheme to make public the number of jobs they have created and their production output since the inception of the scheme in 2006. On our part, we can say that we have not recorded any importation of raw materials and machineries that explains the use of NDCC in such magnitude that we have seen the period.
Reacting to media reports that the Service had issued directives to its Area Controllers to dishonour all importations covered by NDCC, the Comptroller-General stated unequivocally that the Service is still
committed to the growth of the nation’s non-oil sector.
He however stated that the Service has expressed concerns over the abuse of the scheme which negates its objective. A situation where NDCC is used to cover importation of new cars, rice and other luxury items is clearly against the spirit of the scheme and is therefore unacceptable.
Henceforth only applications that are related to export activities will be allowed to be covered by NDCC, the statement added.
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