Stakeholders knock Customs boss over new revenue target

FUNSO OLOJO

Maritime stakeholders have criticized John Atte, the acting Co0mptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service over his directive to his Area Controllers to raise their revenue performance.

Atte, who took over the mantle of leadership from Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, who voluntarily retired from the Service last week Tuesday, gave a matching order to his field commanders few hours after his take over that they raise the monthly target of each of the command from the current N13billion to a whooping sum of N35billion.

Atte, at the strategic management meeting he convened immediately he took over, frowned at what he described as revenue leakages at the command which he noted has compromised the revenue performance of the field officers.

Already, the directive has place enormous pressure on the area controllers, most of who could not even meet the N13billion monthly target due to slum in importation.

However, respondents who spoke to Hallmark on condition of anonymity noted that the order will further add to the hardship being experienced by importers and their agents in the customs clearing process.

According to a chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) who pleaded for anonymity for fear of reprisal attacks, the raise in the revenue targets may lead the customs to totally abandon its trade facilitation function.

‘’Under the tenure of Dikko, the Customs raised its target to an unprecedented one trillion naira which each of the area controllers to employed unorthodox methods to enable them meet the target.

The performance of the area controllers was measured by the amount of money they could generate and Dikko changed any area controller who failed to measure up to the revenue performance  and this put a lot of pressure on them’’, the ANLCA chieftain declared.

He noted that during that time, Customs are not as interested in facilitating trade as in collection of revenue, claiming this attitude makes the nation’s port less friendly.

Another respondent, a member of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders(NAGAFF) declared that in as much as it was the statutory function of the Customs to generate revenue, he noted that it should not be done at the detriment of trade facilitation

‘’The functions of the Customs is not restricted and should not be restricted to revenue collection alone, but trade facilitation and anti-smuggling.

‘The Nigeria Customs, under Dikko, has focused more on revenue generation and anti-smuggling operation while trade facilitation is relegated to the back ground’’, he observed.

A Lagos based importer who deals in the importation of building materials, declared that the N35billion monthly target is not realistic in the face of the global economic recess which he claimed has affected importation negatively.

‘’How are the commands going to collect that much money when importation has gone down? Many importers could no longer access bank loans to finance importation while those who get this loan do so at a very high interest rate which make them cut down on the volume of their imports’’, the importer stated.

He noted that the new order will make the Customs officers in the command so desperate and erratic that they will resort to unconventional means to meet the high target.

‘’The frenzy that this new order will engender in the commands will only result to the adoption of methods by the Customs to generate revenue which will drive away the few importers that are still patriotic to patronize our ports and make them join several others that now divert their cargo to the neigbouring countries’’, he predicted.

However, the Customs did not share this pessimism but believed that the target is realizable if all the revenue leakages are effectively plugged.

To this end, the Acting CG has directed the immediate setting up of anti-corruption seats in all Area Commands to monitor officers’ conduct and report to his office accordingly.

To further check the leaks at the borders,  the Federal Operations Units were directed to intensify their border patrols to bring smugglers to book.

The new Customs boss also directed an immediate review of operational procedures to give maximum effect to the ban on all hinterland patrols in the country while proscribing all task forces under any name or guise operating in all seaports, airports and land borders.

The new Customs boss believed that with all these measures religiously implemented, the revenue performance of the Customs will be greatly enhanced.

He therefore threatened to hold the area controller responsible for any breach of these order.