The Federal Government(FG) through the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has collected over N68 billion between January and June 2022 from excise duties on beer, spirits and other alcoholic beverages, cigarettes and tobacco products, among others.
The NCS has also hinted that it will soon begin collecting the newly approved tariff on calls and data, as recently announced by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
Excise duty is statutorily levied on the manufacture, sale and consumption of goods that fall under excise control, which include but not limited to beer, spirits, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and cigarettes, which are collected in all the 22 commands of the service across the country.
It has also within the six months period collected a total revenue of N1.3 trillion into the federation account, covering imports and excise duties, fees and levies.
This represents an increase of N299.4 billion or 28.83 per cent growth rate compared with the N1.003 trillion it collected in the same period of 2021.
Speaking while presenting the half year report of the service covering January to June 2022, National Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the service, Timi Bomodi, a Deputy Comptroller, also disclosed that the customs commenced collections from extant traders producing carbonated and sugary drinks since June 2022, which was newly added under schedule five of the Common External Tariff (CET).
It was learnt that over N1 billion had so far been collected since its introduction in June.
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He, however, announced that the service was yet to commence the collection of other revenues from the telecommunications sector, especially on data, as the digital network services were yet to be collected.
“He said: “The Nigeria Customs Service is expected to start collecting revenue on these products and services, as soon as the modalities for collection are put in place. Duties from these revenue sources are expected to boost our collections in the current year.
“Of the 42 free trade zones in Nigeria, only 25 are active with 15 of them operating in zone A, four in zone B, five in zone C and in zone D. In addition to providing employment opportunities for Nigerians, the special economic zones are expected to engender the transfer of technology, help build local capacity, provide viable market for other local producers of raw materials and increase the quality of goods, which can potentially be available in the local market on the payment of relevant duties and taxes,” he stated.
On enforcement of anti-smuggling, he noted that there have been remarkable interventions in the anti-smuggling activities, adding that the efforts led to the seizure of various goods in the review period, as regulatory and policy infringements with total Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N39.2 billion.
Some of the goods include narcotics and other illicit drugs with several bags of worth of N8.8 billion bags of foreign Parboiled rice with DPV of N8.3 billion and some illegally imported dangerous pharmaceuticals with DPV of N3.7 billion textiles made up of fabrics with DPV of N2.6 billion and motor vehicles with a duty paid value of N1.9 billion on illegal wild life-trafficking, anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism, he said.
He added that the NCS in collaboration with the United States of America embassy in Nigeria, the British and German governments have helped with the creation of a special wildlife office, which has spearheaded an intelligence-driven approach to curbing illicit trafficking and trading in endangered species.
“Their efforts have led to the arrest of 12 foreign and local suspects, the confiscation of 1,236.5kg of pangolin scales and 145.2 kg of ivory. All suspects have since been charged to court and await conviction. The Anti-Money Laundering Unit (AMLU) of the service has recorded tremendous success in the period under review.
“They made seizures of $339,800, 12,000 Pounds Sterling, 3, 0113,500 RYD, 20,005 CFA and 133 Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, seven persons have been arrested for alleged violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and have been handled over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution,” he said.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government gave the NCS a revenue target of N1.03 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year, representing 78 per cent higher than the 2021 target.
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