The Comptroller-General of Customs, retired Col.
Hameed Ali, on Tuesday said the service would
auction seized vehicles belonging to Imo
Government, brought into Nigeria without
payment of customs duty.
Ali said this during an oversight visit by the
Senate Committee on Customs in Abuja.
According to him, many cars on Nigerian roads
use fake customs papers, adding that most of
the cars were smuggled.
“We (customs) are giving Nigerians with fake
customs papers grace to pay their duty or risk
confiscation of their vehicles.
“I am waiting for the President, Muhammed
Buhari, to give me the permission to ban
importation of cars through land borders to curb
smuggling.
“Vehicles imported should only come through the
sea ports; this will boost our revenue collection,’’
Ali said.
Ali accused car dealers in the country of being
responsible for high rate of smuggled cars.
He said that sometimes customs considered
innocent buyers of fake papers on vehicles to
pay fees so that their vehicles could be released
to them.
Ali said many scanners at Nigeria’s borders were
non-functional, and assured of procurement of
functional ones soon.
Ali said that the NCS generated N570 billion in
nine months.
He said Nigerians were the most non-compliant
in the world, adding that “all we need is full
compliance of the law”.
Ali said the service was working on increasing its
surveillance over the borders.
“We have two helicopters right now for
surveillance; we need more.
According to him, the Nigeria Customs Service
(NCS), since the beginning of the year, has not
received any form of intervention fund to boost
its operations.
“We believe this happened because of the
scarcity of fund the country is experiencing.
We need intervention fund for effective service
delivery; we are not expecting too much.
Ali said full automation in customs would stop
revenue leakages.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs and
Excise, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, expressed
displeasure that the revenue generation of the
service was dwindling.
Uzodinma said that the NCS might not generate
enough revenue this year due to decline in
customs revenue.
“The NCS must find avenues to block all
leakages,’’ Uzodinma said.
He pledged the commitment of the Senate to
customs by making laws that would enhance its
revenue generation.
The committee suggested that all seized items
in customs warehouses could also be given to
orphanages not just the IDPs alone.(NAN)


Source: www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/general/customs-to-auction-seized-imo-govt-vehicles-cgc/168572.html

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