ABUJA: The Tin-can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has increased their revenue by 17.3 percent as they collected N183 billion between January and August this year, as against N156 billion collected during the same period last year. The highest collection by the Command during the period was N28 billion, which was recorded in August. Customs Area Controller, CAC, Tin-can Island Command, Bashar Yusuf, said the amount collected so far represents the highest by the Command in several years. Yusuf noted that the revenue haul would have been more but for the global economic recession and the exclusion of 41 items from foreign exchange (forex) window. He attributed the increased revenue to the deliberate creative policies aimed at blocking all possible areas of revenue loss, adding that the Command is being more thorough in its revenue drive by ensuring that all high yielding revenue consignments are closely monitored to avoid circumvention of procedure. A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Command, Uche Ejesieme, noted that the Area Controller charged officers and men of the Command to brace up for new challenges as the Customs management expects so much from them. Yusuf, according to the statement, assured officers and men that the Command will continue to develop adequate operational template and modalities for entrenching integrity in the performance of their duties. The Controller commended the improved level of compliance by stakeholders in the port to fiscal policies of the federal government in terms of trade. He advised few recalcitrant ones to toe the path of sanity through honest declaration in their documentations, noting that integrity, due diligence, honest declarations and transparency were key elements in 21st century Customs operations.
Similarly, he charged officers in charge of terminals and other senior officers to exhibit high moral/ethical standard to showcase quality leadership for the actualization of set goals and objectives. On his plans for the last four months of the year, Yusuf pointed out that high cargo traffic is usually expected at this period of the year and advised importers to desist from importing prohibited goods, warning them of the implication. “All importers ought to be conversant with the external tariff, especially schedules 3 and 4 (prohibition other than trade and absolute prohibition),” he stated. Yusuf also called on patriotic Nigerians to oblige the Command with credible information about illicit transactions or documentation, promising that the identity of such informant would be protected.