Tin Can Customs Revenue Dips By N3billion In April

The Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has once again experienced a drop in its monthly revenue from N17billion it collected in March 2016 to N14billion for April 2016.
In a statement released to Shipping Position Daily in Lagos yesterday, Public Relations Officer of the command, Mr. Chris Osunkwo‎ noted that there has been a steady drop in the command’s revenue as a result of unfriendly government policies which has made importers to desert the command.
Giving a breakdown of the commands’ revenue performance for 2016, he said N24,858,625,588.00 was collected in January, N16, 856, 458, 800. 00 was collected in February, in the month of March N17,215, 979, 575.00 and in April N14, 342, 974, 003. 00.
However, the cumulative figure according to the statement is lower than the recorded N221.6 billion revenues of the Service in the first quarter of 2015, a situation that now raises doubt as to whether customs can meet the ambitious N1 trillion target for 2016 fiscal year.
It would be recalled that as government incomes tighten across board on account of low oil prices, the NCS has set a target of N1 trillion revenue collections for the Federal Government this year.
Hammed Ali, comptroller general of customs, says he is resolved to meet this target and help government rev up non-oil revenues, and had in January identified blocking of leakages, adoption of workable strategies to improve the service activities at the country’s borders as well as transparency and compliance with the rule of law among men and officials of the Service as key to meeting the 2016 revenue targets.