The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said that it collected a total of Nine Hundred and Sixty-Three Million, Seven Hundred Thousand, Five Hundred and Ninety-Six Naira, Eighty-Five Kobo (N963,700,596.85)as revenue for the month of march 2016.
The command also made sixty (60) seizures with a duty paid value of One Hundred and Fifteen Million, One Hundred and Eighty-Four Thousand, Six Hundred Naira, Fifty-Eight Kobo (N115, 184,600.58)and arrested three (3) suspects in the month under review.
A release signed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr. Selechang Taupyen stated that despite the numerous interruptions in the month of March that hampered the effective collection of maximum revenue at the command, the Seme Command was able to collect over 94% of its revenue for the month of target in use showing less than 6% short fall for the period under review.
Taupyen stated that the revenue collected despite the hiccups exceeded the Seven Hundred and Seventy-Three Million, Eight Hundred and Forty-One Thousand, Eight Hundred and Ninety Naira, Thirty-Eight Kobo (N 773,841,890.38)collected in the corresponding month in 2015 with over One Hundred and Eighty-Nine Million, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Eight Thousand, Seven Hundred and Six Naira, Forty-Seven Kobo (N189, 858,706.47).
According to him,” The Customs Area Controller disclosed that as a command, we are committed and determined to succeed and leave above board at all times, even when we have daunting challenges that have negative influence on our mandate of revenue generation. We have no option than to accept such unexpected eventuality as natural phenomenon. However, the Controller reiterated that our relentless quest to succeed in actualizing our monthly revenue target makes every challenge surmountable to us as a command.
“It is pertinent to note that despite some fundamental factors that lowered economic activities at the Lagos-Abidjan corridor like the two rounds of Presidential elections that took place (5th and 19th March) in the Republic of Benin, the security alert over the possible invasion of armed robbers to the banks and the border community which made banks to be on half day work for a week, and the attempt by the dare devil armed robbery gang that was repelled by the joint border security forces through the waterways.
“Also the two working days (25th & 28th) declared as Easter public holidays, the high exchange rate occasioned by the rejection of the naira in certain quarters and the sorry and deplorable state of the Lagos -Seme road”.
He noted that the Command was not ready to roll out the above list of excuses as hindrances not to perform creditably in her responsibilities, but wouldl go extra mile to contribute and exploit all avenues at her disposal to justify the mandate given to the service by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
He disclosed that the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Victor Dimka re-stated the commitment of the command to work round the clock in order to succeed all the times.
He quoted the Comptroller as saying, ‘’ As long as I remain the Customs Area Controller of Seme Command, except for unavoidable reasons, no deliberate and conscious excuse will be given by Seme command for failing in discharging her statutory responsibility of maximum revenue collection’’.
The Command’s spokesman observed that the Controller further encouraged his management team to work assiduously more than ever before considering the re-introduction of restriction order on the importation of rice through land borders across the country by the service.
The Customs Area Controller according to Taupyen sounded a word of caution to all border patrol officers emphasizing that there was zero-tolerance to smuggling of imported rice through the land borders; hence the need for aggressive patrol of all flanks and crannies of suspected openings to suppress smuggling of the product to the barest minimum cannot be over emphasized.
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