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Customs rakes in N2.2bn monthly from import supervision scheme

By BusinessNews Staff on July 19, 2014

Not less than N2.2 billion is raked in monthly from the one percent Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS), according to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

The money which is now generated into the coffers of the federal government was hitherto paid to the three scanner service providers (SSPs) under the aegis of the destination inspection (DI) scheme.

The contract of the SSPs was cancelled last December by the Federal Government after initial extension and intense lobby within and outside the corridors of powers.

The SSPs were the ones issuing risk assessment reports (PAAR) which is now replaced by the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR) presently managed by NCS in the nation’s seaports, airports and international borders.

Already some stakeholders have been agitating for the scrapping of the collection of the 1 percent CISS levy collection by NCS.

Customs Deputy Comptroller, Olugboyega Peters, revealed this at a two-day training organised for maritime journalist in Lagos.

Enumerating the strides the Nigeria Customs has made since it commenced the implementation of PAAR on January 1, 2014, Peters said that N2.2billion is being collected monthly from CISS.

Apparently debunking the notion that NCS is now smiling to the banks with the huge money accruing from CISS, Peters stated that the funds is not in customs coffers.

“None of the money being collected is given to customs yet. We are not given this money yet. But I am sure it will be given. Over 2.2 billion is being saved monthly by customs as money that could have gone into the coffers of the service providers,” he said.

Peters also stated that the customs service is now fully automated and that the initial hiccups it encountered in the transmission of PAAR from its ruling centre in Abuja to the customers’ banks have all been surmounted.

According to him, customs is now on a better server managed by Webfontain, explaining that genuine importers can now get their PAAR in six hours. He pointed out that NCS has successfully cleared the 99,000 backlog of PAAR’s it had inherited from the three SSPs.

The customs chief also revealed that the former network provider for NCS, West Blue, has been given a new contract to develop software for its young officers besides handling NCS training schools across the country.

[This Day]

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