Apapa Customs rakes N203.3b revenue in Six Months

By Dapo Olawuni

The Apapa Area 1 command of the Nigeria Customs Service has collected N203,264,054,682.69 as revenue between the months of January through June 2019.

Briefing journalists at the command in Apapa on Tuesday, the Customs Area Controller, Compt Abba Kura said the command also recorded 95,222.15 metric tons of exported goods with Free On Board (FOB) value of $46,258,443,706.63.

Compt Kura said the the anti smuggling efforts of the command yielded fruits as a total of twenty nine containers of various items that contravened import procedures were seized.

Some of the seized items includes Tomato Paste, Vegetable oil, Ladies and girls fashion footwear’s, Tramadol and other drugs. It also Includes Armored glasses without End User Certificate and drilling pipes labelled in foreign language.

All the listed Items according to Compt Kura, breached the Federal Government Fiscal Policy Measures for 2018/2019. The Duty Paid Value (DPV) of the items stands at N418,437,048

Giving a breakdown of the revenue so far collected this year, he said the figure represents 54.5% of the Annual Revenue Target of the Command.

According to him, the Apapa Area Command has a monthly revenue target of N 31,046,655,039.35 and a yearly target of N372,559,860,472.23.

Also, comparative analysis of the revenue collection of the command between January to June 2018 and 2019 indicates an increase of N 26,507,298,510.24.

The Command collected the sum of N 176,756,756,14S.55 In 2018 hence the increase as indicated above when subtracted from 2019 collection within the same period under review.

Compt Kura assured that “The Command will facilitate speedily legitimate, compliant and all trade that have satisfied the necessary procedures concerning the transaction. AlI such consignments will get accelerated clearance out of the Customs system”

“Furthermore, the Command will continue to build on the capacity programmes for both officers and stakeholders operating in the Command to acquaint them with modern trends, government fiscal policies as well as NICIS II operative systems”

“This will bring everyone at the same page for optimal service and willful compliance for timely cargo release in the Command”

Compt Kura commended the stakeholders operating at Apapa ports for their collective contribution to the successes of the command and assured them of readiness to serve them even better in the second half of the year 2019.