By Ugo Ezuruike
The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has generated N594, 195,311.23 in the month of January 2017.
According to statement made available to Business Highlights, by the spokesman of the command, Mr. Selchang Taupyen said that the ommand also made 43 seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) N92, 385,870.00.
It stated that the source of the revenue generated is dominated by imported general goods and Baggage Assessment using the Passengers Baggage Entry System (PBES) platform.
Commenting on the revenue figure, the Customs Area Comptroller, Mr. Victor Dimka, said that the amount realized was commendable, and the effect of the policy has no negative implication on the Service, since no revenue is lost by the Federal Government despite the ban on the importation of new and fairly used vehicles through the land border.
“This is because the revenue that is supposed to be collected through the land border is still been collected at the sea port without leakages,” he added.
The Customs Area Comptroller further re-iterated that every officer must ensure total compliance for the policy to succeed.
He said all hands must be on deck to ensure that the success of the policy is intelligence driven with a robust relationship between the border command and the host communities.
Dimka enjoined his officers and men to work assiduously as never before to give their best to the service in a challenging time like now.
He re-stated that as the busiest land border Command that is strategically located along the corridor that link other West African Countries, the Command cannot afford to fail because much is expected from the border command.
He assured that the command would continue to perform her statutory functions of revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade, combating of smuggling activities across the frontier and securing the Nation’s territorial integrity among others.
Dimka said the anti-smuggling Unit of the command is already frustrating the attempt of smugglers who dare to try the might of the government in smuggling fairly used vehicles through the land border.
In another development, the Customs Area Comptroller in his welcome address during the visit of the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs Zone ‘A’, Mr. Monday Abueh, to Seme Area Command, lamented the absence of facilities like baggage hall, parking space, examination bay, functional scanner and other things that led to operational setback hence making the border command un-equiped to operate in line with the global best practices as obtainable in other developed Countries.
The CAC took the visiting ACG for on the spot assessment of the Baggage Unit, ETLS and Export Seat all located in Benin Republic and the Government Warehouse of the Command at the Nigerian site.
