The report by the investigations conducted by the Joint Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport into the alleged revenue leakages in the import and export value chain, valued at N30tn, is due for presentation, SUNDAY PUNCH has learnt.
A member of the committee, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said the findings made by the panel “will shock Nigerians” when eventually published.
The senator, who alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had not been generating revenue efficiently, said the probe by the panel would enhance the agency’s capacity.
He said, “We are coming up with our report soon. We have recovered a lot of money and the amount will shock Nigerians. We just met with the leadership of the Customs and it was made clear to everybody that they are not performing maximally; they must do more.”
The committee had presented an interim report in 2017, in which it said it had recovered over N140bn from banks and companies.
In the report presented by the committee’s co-chairman, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the panel said some banks had remitted N128bn to the Central Bank of Nigeria, while some of the 60 companies investigated, voluntarily paid N12bn into the Federal Government’s coffers.
The report, which was adopted by the Senate, said the recovered funds had been deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The probe was based on the adoption of a motion titled, ‘Urgent Need to Examine the Operations of the Nigeria Customs Service Revenue Drive’, adopted on November 15, 2016.
The Senate had specifically mandated the committee to carry out a holistic investigation into the activities of the service “with a view to identifying the leakages and irregularities as well as the causes of the declining revenue profile of the service and come up with recommendations that will invigorate the revenue of the Nigeria Customs Service.” (Punch )
