Revenue Generation by Apapa Custom hits N367.6bn in 9 months

The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Apapa command, said it generated the sum of N367.6 billion naira between January and September.

The Customs Area Controller, Apapa Command, Comptroller Mohammed Abba-Kura, disclosed this in a media chat in Lagos.

According to him, the N367,682,616,309.23 revenue collected between January to September have been remitted to the federation account.

He noted that this was as against the N313,518,235,978.06 collected same period in 2019, and it showed a significant increased difference of N54,164,380,331.17 representing 17 per cent increase.

“The difference recorded was made possible as a result of the resilience of officers in ensuring that importers and agents are made to do proper declarations, adhere strictly to import/export guidelines in tandem with extant laws,”he said.

Abba-Kura added that the command in the third quarter, between July and September collected revenue to the tune of N140,335,570,076.38 as customs duty and other charges.

He noted that in comparison to the revenue collected same period in 2019, it stood at N110,254,181,295.37 stating that this showed a progressive difference of N30,081,388,781.01 depicting 27 per cent increase of collection for the period under review.

He said that as regards anti- smuggling, officers and men of the command are not resting on their oars in enforcing government fiscal policies and other trade guidelines.

He said that the command made a total seizure of 187 containers of pharmaceutical products and other general goods from July 1 to Sept. 30.

He listed the seized items to include: 72 containers of pharmaceutical products; 24 containers of foreign parboiled rice; 23 containers of secondhand clothing and other sundry items.

He said that the cumulative Duty Paid Value (DPV) of the aforementioned items stood at N3,640,894,888.00.

“In addition, from January to September, the command seized a total of 328 containers of various goods with DPV of 19,545,849,108.00) as against 37 containers seized in the same period in 2019 with a DPV of less than 3 billion naira.

“These items were seized mainly because of various forms of infractions which range from false declarations, non-adherence to import/export guidelines and failure to comply with other extant regulations as enshrined in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA),”he said.

The Apapa controller said that in the area of export trade, the period under review, the command recorded exportation of goods worth N26,273,706,822.00 exported from the country.

He said that the exported goods include: Mineral resources, Steel bars, Agricultural products amongst others with a total tonnage of 378,447 million tones and Free On Board (FOB) value of $85,861,787.00.

He said that similarly, the volume of export trade from January-September, stood at N78,643,231,290.00 with FOB value of $257,003,965.00.

He pointed out that the command had maintained its open-door policy and resolved a lot of issues of common interest with concerned stakeholders.

“Let me reiterate my call to our esteemed partners in the clearance value chain to always brace up to the emerging challenges as we work together to move the country forward.

“I want to use this medium to urge Officers and men of the command to remain focused and steadfast in discharging their assigned responsibilities, and appreciate our respective Customs Units domiciled in the Command for their continued support,”he said.