Senate Begins Probe into N4tr Customs Revenue Leakage

March 27, 2017
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Senate Begins Probe into N4tr Customs Revenue Leakage

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

An investigation into the alleged N4 trillion revenue leakages in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has already been launched by the Senate.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Mr Hope Uzodinma, disclosed that the Senate would get to the root of the matter.

According to the lawmaker, the committee frowns at the quantum of revenue losses and it will stop at nothing in ensuring that those involved in this ugly act return all recoverable monies with them.

He said further that, “The committee also frowns at the level of collusion and corruption within the customs service.”

Mr Uzodinma told journalists that already, a preliminary investigation by the committee has revealed that the over N4 trillion revenue leakage was due to abuse and non-implementation of form M (Foreign Exchange forms).

He vowed that the committee would stop at nothing in recovering the money, which was allegedly lost to lapses and various infractions between 2006 and 2016.

“The senate committee on customs has condemned the inability of the technical committee on the implementation of comprehensive import supervision scheme to ensure that provisions of import control management Act are followed to the latter,” he said.

“At the end of our current investigation, all these will become a thing of the past and customs revenue will be enhanced while non-oil revenue will be improved upon.

“What we are investigating is not money spent, it is the leakages.

“For instance, I am supposed to pay XYZ amount of duty, I will abandon the documentation, go get fake documents, collude with customs, pay maybe a fraction of it and carry my goods. With that, the true import circle is not closed.

“Another instance is that assessment is abandoned or I fill the form M for example with a pro forma invoice, apply for foreign exchange in Central Bank, XYZ amount of money is allocated to me, money moves in but no goods shipped.

“I will then go get fake documents, collude with customs and then retire the allocation,” he said on Sunday.

Modupe Gbadeyanka

Modupe Gbadeyanka is a fast-rising journalist with Business Post Nigeria. Her passion for journalism is amazing. She is willing to learn more with a view to becoming one of the best pen-pushers in Nigeria. Her role models are the duo of CNN's Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour.

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