According to the government, the sole responsibility of
collecting revenue should be domiciled with the Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS) while NCS facilitates trade.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab
Ahmed, stated this at a one-day public hearing on a bill for an Act to repeal
the Customs and Excise Management Act (2004) and the Nigeria Customs Service
(establishment) Bill.
The session was organised by the House Committee on Customs.
Sponsor of the bill and Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, said the bill
sought to rejig the board of customs and excise management with competent and
result-oriented technocrats.
Meanwhile, the speaker of House of Representatives, Hon Femi
Gbajabiamila expressed anger at the absence of the Comptroller General of
Customs, Col Hameed Ali (rtd) at the public hearing.
Gbajabiamila expressed his displeasure over the apparent
nonchalance of the Customs boss in his nonappearance at the public hearing,
saying that it was totally unacceptable.
He explained that the bill when passed would reposition the
Nigeria Customs Service in tandem with international best practices and make
the Service more result oriented.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Chairman of the House
Committee on Customs and Excise, Hon Leke Abejide, listed the legislative
initiatives on the bill to include ; Collation of all Customs and Excise
legislations into a single compendium of the Customs and Excise Act to
facilitate easy reference; The Act will position the Nigeria Customs Service to
be financially stable in order to recruit the required number of officers they
need to man our porous border stations and provide legislative inputs in the
appointment of the Comptroller General of Customs as is done in the appointment
of Service Chiefs.
Other obsolete laws the Committee want reviewed include the
rejigging of the Board with competent and result oriented technocrats for
smooth and fast operation of the Service, among other sundry issues. Hon
Abejide further explained that the present workforce of 15,349 falls short of
the about 30,000 officers and men required if the Service must perform
optimally.
The Committee Chairman explained that the present 7per cent
cost of duty collected allocated to the Service was barely enough for recurrent
expenditures, not to talk about capital projects and that the new bill seeks a
4per cent FOB, according to international best practices.
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