FOU Zone B recovers N51m in 17 days fury

As PTML Customs generate N46.85bn in Q1

In continuation of its anti-smuggling activities, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone B Kaduna said it it made a total of 39 seizures between March 22 and April 8, 2021, with a Duty Paid Value, DPV of N51,499,799.58.

This is even as the Ports and Terminal Multiservices Limited, PTML, Command of NCS recorded N46.85billion in revenue collection for the first quarter, January to March, 2021.

Zone B Unit Controller, Comptroller Hamisu A.B psc(+) in a statement said the seizures include 801x 50kg bags and 38 x 25kg bags of foreign parboiled rice. The statement signed by the Unit Public Relations Officer, ASC1 Mailafiya Magaji and made available to our reporter, show that the Unit also intercepted 180 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 81 kegs of foreign vegetable oil, 74 cartons of Giv and Eva foreign Soap, 48 bales of secondhand clothes, 28 cartons of Ginny Creamer and 8 vehicles, which were means of conveyance of contraband items, within the period under review.

The seizures, the Unit explained was made at various locations in the zone, which comprise 10 states of the North West and North Central, including the Federal Capital Territory Abuja.

It will be recalled that the Unit under Hamisu in the last two weeks of February this year recorded 51 seizures, which include the arrest of 180 pieces of assorted Jack knives in the Tsafe Area of Zamfara state. The seizures include 13 vehicles, 592 bags of foreign parboiled rice and assortment of other offensive items.

Despite PTML’s Command impressive first quarter performance, the command suffered a shortfall of N48billion, which it blamed harsh operational atmosphere, particularly the ports access roads gridlock.

While the command collected N45.40bn as revenue between January and March 2020, according to a statement signed by its spokesman, Muhammad Yakubu, a breakdown of the first-quarter collections shows that N15.21bn was collected in January 2021, which represents a 7.6 per decrease in lieu of the N16.46bn collected in January 2020.

According to the statement, the command collected N11.71bn in February 2021 which also fell by 11.9 per lesser than the sum of N13.3bn collected in the corrending period of 2020. The March 2021 collection of N19.94bn, however, broke the downward curve with an 27.4 percent increase, over and above the N15.65bn collected in March 2020.

The statement attributed the earlier shortfalls recorded in the first two months of the year to the low volume of trade occasioned by the lull in economic activities due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Area Controller of the command, Festus Okun in the statement enjoined importers and agents using the PTML port for their businesses to imbibe and sustain good business etiquettes such as sincere declarations, prompt duty payment, in addition to total compliance to import procedures, respect for import probibition policies, and adhering to the Customs and Excise Management Act rules and other guidelines.