Govt. agencies at ports remit N2.751 trn to federation accounts in two years.

Federal Government agencies operating in the nation’s Maritime industry generated N2.751trillion in the last two years – 2016 and 2017, report has shown.

Some of these agencies which operate at the nations seaport included the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) which generated N2.751trillion into the coffers of the Consolidated Revenue Fund in the year under review.

The revenue generated by these agencies are unprecedented in the history of these agencies.
For instance, NIMASA generated a whooping N21.805 billion in 13 months and remitted same into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federal government.
The breakdown of the payment showed that the agency paid N9.975 billion $38.272 million (N11.826) to the CRF within the period under review.
Also, on June 1, last year, the agency remitted N5 billion into the CRF. Similarly, it paid N4.975 billion on June 2, 2016; $7 million on November 22, 2016 and $15 million on April 19, 2017.
In the same vein, the agency on July 18, 2017, remitted $16.272 million to the CRF.
Further checks revealed that in 2015, NIMASA’s contributions to the CRF was just N2billion and $15 million respectively.
Another payment of $24.025 million described as “direct debit” by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was received from NIMASA accounts..
Moreover, the NPA declared that it generated N299.56 billion as revenue in the 2017 fiscal year.
The 2017 revenues exceeded the 2016 figure of N162.20 billion by 84.65 per cent, the highest generated by the NPA in the last five years.
The authority explained that the 2017 figure is made up of revenues from “traffic,” “harbours,” “administrative” and other sources in the sum of N136.04 billion, N66.80 billion, N86.06 billion and N10.75 billion respectively.
The 2017 revenues. Of the authority exceeded the 2016 figure of N162.20 billion by 84.65 per cent, the highest generated by the NPA in the past five years.
The NPA had in 2013 generated the sum of N154.50 billion. It increased to N159.30 billion and N180.50 billion in 2014 and 2015 respectively.
The authority’s revenue, however, dropped to N162.20 billion in 2016.
The Nigeria Customs on its own part generated N898bn as revenue in 2016, including VAT.
According to the service, If VAT is removed, duty collection only is N720bn, which represents a percentage of 76.90 per cent.
Also, the service exceeded it’s 2017 target by generating another N1.37trillion in 2017 which is N241.68bn higher than the 2017 target, which exceeded the N898.67bn collected in 2016.
The service had announced earlier that it generated a total of N1.12tn between January and December 26.
However, speaking in Lagos earlier in the year, the National Public Relations Officer of the service, Joseph Attah announced that five days to the end of 2017, it generated additional N25bn to bring its total revenue generated for the year to N1.37tn.
He stated that the 2017 revenue was made possible through the strict deployment of the digital identification method, which enabled officers to identify consignments such as vehicles, using the mandatory Vehicle Identification Number.
He said that declarations on vessels increased significantly in 2017 due to the use of digital application to locate vessels on Nigerian waters and request for payment of appropriate duties as data of the vessels were available on the digital platform.
According to him, the service generated this revenue against the backdrop of several challenges, including the ban on 41 items of import from access to foreign exchange.
“For instance, rice which raked in N56.8bn in 2014, contributed only N265m to the Customs revenue in 2017,” he said.
Attah pointed out that the enforcement of fiscal policies in 2017 led to a decrease in the average duty rate from 12.54 to 11.1 in line with the lowering of duty rates for national projects in the agriculture and the automotive sectors.