Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), retired Col. Hameed Ali, has said that the service had a revenue shortfall of N230 billion in the last quarter of 2015.
Ali made the disclosure during a Consultative Forum between Customs and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) held at the Customs Training School, Ikeja, Lagos.
He attributed the shortfall to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) policies, adding that the service pleaded for sympathetic consideration by the CBN to review the policies.
“Customs had also made progress in getting the necessary approval for clearance of a huge backlog of imports.
“Imports in respect of which forms `M’ were opened before the commencement of the CBN foreign exchange restriction of some imported items.
“Importers of such goods could not finalise Customs clearance due to inability to obtain the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).
“Relief has come for such importers as we (Customs) have secured the go- ahead to waive the formalities and allow them to pay duty,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Ali as saying.
The comptroller-general said that the service had re-organised the Dispute Resolution Units and designated experienced comptrollers to head the units for quick resolution of disputes.
He said that all disputes arising from valuation and classification were now referred to the units for resolution.
Ali said that the service had been receiving complaints about rates of duty and documentation processes which differed from one port to the other.
He said that there was also the issue of different rates among terminals in the same port.
The comptroller-general said emphasis would be on professionalisation of Customs’ jobs, saying that the vision of the management was to build a pool of highly-skilled specialists.
He said specialisation would be in core areas like Valuation, Classification, Rules of Origin, Excise, Enforcement, Customs IT and Investigation.