The Nigeria Customs Service has generated N898bn as revenue in 2016, including VAT.

The NCS spokesman, Mr. Joseph Attah, on Monday said that the figure was however less than the N904bn collected in 2015.

He attributed the shortfall to the difficulty in accessing foreign exchange and removal of the 41 items.

According to him, the service was given a target of N937bn as revenue in 2016.

He said, “The strict insistence of the Comptroller General on application of instant laws enabled the service to generate a total that is inclusive of VAT of N898bn.

“If VAT is removed, duty collection only is N720bn, our performance represents a percentage of 76.90 per cent.

“Hopefully we will do better in 2017.”

According to him, the comptroller General in recent time had taken steps to effect some redeployment in a bid to strengthen operations and reposition the service for improved delivery.

(NAN)