The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has generated N594.1 million in January 2017.
The Chief Public Relations Officer of the Command, Mr Selechang Taupyen, stated this in a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the revenue recorded in January was lower than N655.3 million generated in the corresponding period of 2016, a development attributed to high exchange rate.
According to the statement, the Command made 43 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N92.3 million.
“The source of the revenue generated is dominated by imported general goods and Baggage Assessment using the Passengers Baggage Entry System (PBES) platform,” NAN quotes the statement as saying.
Commenting on the revenue figure, the Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Victor Dimka, said the amount realised was commendable.
He said no revenue was lost by the Federal Government’s in spite of the ban on importation of new and fairly used vehicles through the border.
“This is because the revenue that is supposed to be collected through the land border is still collected at the seaports without leakages,’’ NAN quotes Dimka as saying.
The controller further said that “every officer must ensure total compliance with the policy for it to succeed’’.
He said all hands must be on deck to ensure that the success of the policy was intelligence-driven with a robust relationship between the border commands and the host communities.
Dimka urged officers and men of the command to work assiduously as never before to give their best to the service in a challenging time like now.
The controller said that as the busiest land border command strategically located along the corridor that linked other West African countries, the command could not afford to fail.
According to him, much is expected from the border command.
He assured that the command would continue to perform its statutory functions of revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade, combating of smuggling activities across the nation’s frontier and securing the nation’s territorial integrity, among others.
Dimka said the Anti-Smuggling Unit of the Command was already frustrating the attempt of smugglers, who tried the might of the government in smuggling fairly-used vehicles through the land borders.
In another development, the controller, in his welcome address (during the visit of the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs Zone ‘A’ Assistant Comptroller-General Monday Abueh, to Seme Area Command), lamented the absence of facilities (Baggage hall, Parking space, Examination bay, Functional Scanners e.t.c) .
He said this led to operational setbacks; making the border command ill-equipped to operate in line with the global best practices as obtainable in other developed countries.
The controller took the visiting ACG for an on-the-spot assessment of the Baggage Unit, Ecowas Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and Export Seat, all located in Benin Republic and the Government Warehouse of the Command at the Nigerian site.
The Command also observed the International Customs Day (ICD) celebration on Jan. 26.
Events that commemorated the ICD celebration commenced with a parade; a lecture presentation on the theme: ”Data Analysis for Effective Border Management’’, and a novelty football match between the NCS, Seme Command and the Nigeria Immigration Service, Seme,’’ (NAN)