By Isaac Anumihe
The shake-up in Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) may not have come to the officers as a surprise in the face of the onerous task the service is expected to perform this year.
Beside the total ban on rice import, officers of the NCS were also expected to ensure that no new or used vehicle is allowed through the land borders from January 1, 2017.
The issue of security was a key consideration for the authorities as they seek to inject fresh ideas and design new strategies to boost revenue from areas other than duties from rice and vehicles.
The authorities also felt that officers have stayed long on their duty post and most of them were fraternising with their host communities to the extent that they have civilianised themselves.
In addition, the customs authorities believe that there are some commands that constantly do not meet their targets and a change of guard in such areas may be necessary.
All these thoughts prompted the Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Hammed Ali to re-jig, redeploy and reposition the officers who hitherto had become used to their environments to areas they can function more effectively.
It is expected that NCS revenue target this year, would be cut to N277.56 billion from N326.4 billion last year. The cut in revenue was necessitated by the fact that less emphasis was placed on importation. While the revenue from the customs was predicated on the cost, insurance and freight value of imports, as well as other applicable tariffs, the current economic climate had necessitated a review of some of the policies that would affect these fiscal items. Some of the policies that would affect customs revenue this year include, import duty from vehicles and rice ban on rice, among others.
Duties on vehicle importation account for over 50 per cent customs revenue at Seme Border and other land borders across the country and so it is expected that this year’s customs revenue would dip by 50 per cent.
So, NCS needs more vigour and ingenuity to ensure that even the N277.56 billion target is met and surpassed.
To this effect, about eight Assistant Comptrollers-General and 238 Deputy Comptrollers got new postings with effect from January 3.
Those affected include, Assistant Comptrollers-General (ACG), Charles Edike from Zone A to Human Resource Development (HRD); Ahmed Mohammed from HRD to Zone B and Aminu Dangaladima from Zone B to Enforcement.
In a statement, the Deputy Public Relations Officer, Mr Joseph Attah, said other assistant comptrollers affected are Francis Dosunmu from Enforcement to Zone D, Augustine Chidi from Zone D to Excise, Free Trade Zone and Industrial Incentives (Ex, FTZ, & I I); Monday Abueh from Ex, FTZ, & I I to Zone A, Umar Sanusi from HQ to Zone C, and Abdulkadir Azerema from Zone C to headquarters.
However, among the 238 Deputy Comptrollers, Mr Wale Adeniyi was posted from the head quarters to Apapa, to strengthen the command which has been in limbo for sometime.
Indusry watchers saw the changes as timely. While some believe the changes will suppress smuggling, facilitate legitimate trade and generate revenue, others feel that NCS should focus more on intelligence gathering to ensure that all areas of revenue leakages are blocked.
The president, Association of Maritime Journalists, Mr Ismail Aniemu agreed that customs is saddled with a lot of responsibilities and those responsibilities should be tackled head on by the new officers.
“In view of the basic functions of the Nigeria Customs Service at the time the nation is trying to move away from over-dependence on oil, customs has the strategic role to generate revenue from non-oil products for Nigeria. These officers must have to rededicate themselves to their core functions by ensuring that all areas of revenue leakages, like concealment, under-valuation and under-declaration of cargoes are well taken care of. It can only take the connivance of customs officers, the importers and the agents to perpetrate these acts. We advise that the officers should shun all these unlawful acts so that all revenues due to government are duly collected. We also discovered as Nigerians that many bad items still find their way into the market through smuggling and there is need for customs officers to redouble their efforts and use their internal intelligence to detect bad eggs within the system. They compromise their positions by conniving with importers to allow prohibited items into the country and into the market” he said.
Another stakeholder who does not want his name in print, looked at life-saving responsibility of the customs.
“Some of the prohibited items do not only endanger the country; they also endanger our lives. For example, those who import drugs are supposed to go through NAFDAC certification and duly cleared. But the importers of these drugs know that they might not meet the certified standard and may not be wholesome for consumption. So they choose smuggle them in for pecuniary purpose. The government loses heavily and the people lose too. The government will lose in the area of collection and the lives of citizens become endangered. We have seen instances when customs seizes containers of drugs and the content of these drugs were empty capsules of ampicilin. Capsules coming in in ampicilin colour. When you open it, there is nothing inside. So, the customs has a life-saving responsibility beyond the suppression of smuggling; beyond the collection of government revenue” he said, adding that the customs also collects revenue for excise.
“Excise duty in factories. There are very many factories in Nigeria that are run by the Chinese who evade excise duty payment. They cannot do these things in their country. So, the customs intelligence must brace up to its billing by combing all nooks and crannies in Nigeria and discover hidden factories where goods are manufactured and duties are not paid for the purpose of excise duty collection,” he noted.