Customs generates N976.6bn revenue in 8 months

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has so far generated N976.6 billion revenue from January to August for the country.

The document obtained from the service through its Public Relations Office by our reporter on Thursday indicated that the sum was realised from import duties and excise duties, among others.

The statistics showed that the NCS generated its highest revenue from import duty followed by the one gotten from the service’s Value Added Tax (VAT).

From the document, NCS realised N471.7 billion from import duty trailed by the N216.4 billion generated from the Customs’ VAT.

According to the statistics, the sum of N120.4 billion is generated from Non-Federation Accounts levies, while N84.3 billion is gotten from Federation Accounts levies.

The document also showed that the sum of N76.9 billion was generated from excise duty and N6.6 billion was received from fees.

Recall that the sum of N1.3 trillion was generated as revenue in 2019 by the NCS.

Speaking on this development, Mr Promise Amahah, an economic expert commended Customs for generating such amount in spite the COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted negatively on the economy.

Amahah said with what the NCS had generated in eight months, it would catch up or even surpass the N1.3 trillion revenue for 2019.

It was reported that the Comptroller-General of NCS, retired Col. Hameed Ali had assured the country of generating substantial revenue in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ali was speaking while commending his officers and men for their resilience and commitment to duty during the challenging period of coronavirus.

“Nigeria and indeed the world have been challenged with COVID-19, but we are still doing our best, there is no cause for alarm in terms of revenue generation,” Ali said.