Customs Miss N322.1Bn Revenue Target in 1Q2014

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) collected a mere N77.9 billion as against N400 billion, losing N322.1 billion, a huge drop in its first quarter revenue 2014.

The revenue represented Customs collection between January and March 2014.

The amount collected represents 19.5 per cent of its projected revenue for the first quarter of the year.

When compared to its collection in the first quarter of 2013, the amount is less than half of the N191.3 billion.

A document of the revenue profile released by the NCS in Abuja on Monday indicated that N27.4 billion was collected in January, N23.8 billion in February and N26.7 billion in March.

It stated that out of the revenue collected during the period, N41.7 billion was remitted to the Federation Account and N36.2 billion remitted to the non-federation account.

The revenue, the document stated, was collected from duties, fees and levies.

It added that N7.2 billion was collected on port levy, N1.4 billion from levy on sugar, N7.2 billion from wheat grain levy and N1 million from flour levy.

It also stated that N41.7 billion of the revenue figure was realised from 5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) while N131.8 million was from National Export Supervision Scheme (NESS).

Other special levies which provided revenue during the period, according to the document, are Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme and ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme, which accounted for N10.5 billion and N6.3 billion, respectively.

A further breakdown of the revenue figure showed that N2.6 billion was generated from 100 per cent rice levy, N79.2 million from brown rice levy and N112.5 million from steel levy.

According to the document, textile levy accounted for N24.1 million, N4.8 million from wine, cement levy, N274.9 million and N135 million from cigarette levy.