The report by the investigations conducted by the Joint Senate Committee
on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport into the alleged
revenue leakages in the import and export value chain, valued at N30tn,
is ready.
A member of the committee, who spoke
to The Punch on condition of anonymity, said the findings made by the
panel “will shock Nigerians” when eventually published.
The
senator, who alleged that the Nigeria Customs Service had not been
generating revenue efficiently, said the probe by the panel would
enhance the agency’s capacity.
He said, “We are coming up with
our report soon. We have recovered a lot of money and the amount will
shock Nigerians. We just met with the leadership of the Customs and it
was made clear to everybody that they are not performing maximally; they
must do more.”
The committee had presented an interim report in 2017, in which it said it had recovered over N140bn from banks and companies.
In
the report presented by the committee’s co-chairman, Senator Samuel
Anyanwu, the panel said some banks had remitted N128bn to the Central
Bank of Nigeria, while some of the 60 companies investigated,
voluntarily paid N12bn into the Federal Government’s coffers.
The report, which was adopted by the Senate, said the recovered funds had been deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The
probe was based on the adoption of a motion titled, ‘Urgent Need to
Examine the Operations of the Nigeria Customs Service Revenue Drive’,
adopted on November 15, 2016.
The Senate had specifically
mandated the committee to carry out a holistic investigation into the
activities of the service “with a view to identifying the leakages and
irregularities as well as the causes of the declining revenue profile of
the service and come up with recommendations that will invigorate the
revenue of the Nigeria Customs Service.”
