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Rice importers pay N23.1bn duty in nine months

By BusinessNews Staff on November 1, 2014

Rice importers in the country paid about N23.1bn as duty on the produce in the first nine months of the year.

Statistics obtained by our correspondent from the Tin Can Island Customs office showed that N7.92bn was paid on rice imports at seaports in the same period of 2013, thus showing an increase of N15.21bn or 191 per cent this year.

The tax levy paid between January and September of 2014 was highest at the Apapa Port with N14.3bn; followed by Port Harcourt Area I, N7.30bn; while the lowest duty proceeds of N316,336 was collected at the Port and Terminal Multi-Service Limited’s Customs office.

The Tin Can Island Port made N886.65m and the Port Harcourt Onne Port collected N583.6m as duty on rice in in the first three quarters of the year.

Within the same period, the Lilypond Port Terminal collected N37.7m; Oil and Gas Terminal, N11.03m; Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, N10.87m; and PTMI Customs office, N316,336.

At the Apapa Port, the revenue from rice imports reached a peak of N4.56bn in September compared with N4.16bn made in August this year. In September 2013, N7.13m was realised.

No tax revenue was made at the Apapa Port in January and February, 2014, while a similar situation was observed in Port Harcourt Area I between January and April as well as in June.

Similarly, in the months of January, March and May, the Port Harcourt Onne Port realised zero revenue from rice imports, while the lowest amount of N14,999 was made in Tin Can Island Port in January compared with the other months.

The low revenue collection was attributed to the stalling of cargo clearance as a result of the 110 per cent rice import levy imposed in the early part of the year.

[Punch]

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