The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Seme Area Command has recorded an upsurge in its revenue collection as the revenue for the month of June, 2016 went up by 69% of its monthly target.
A release signed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Selechang Taupyen and made available to Primetime Reporters showed that the command collected a total of N695, 292, 849.76 (Six hundred and ninety-five million, two hundred and ninety-two thousand, eight hundred and forty-nine naira, seventy-six Kobo) for the month in review.
The Command also made a total number of 64 (Sixty-four) seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N 35,693,712.28 (Thirty-five million, six hundred and ninety-three thousand, seven hundred and twelve naira, twenty-eight Kobo) for the period under review.
The Customs Area Controller (CAC), Comptroller Victor Dimka disclosed that the increase in the June figure compared to the last two months indicated a gradual increase in the economic activities across the land border.
This, he said may be necessitated by the commencement of the flexible CBN foreign exchange policy of the federal government which allowed for the determination of the exchange rate by market forces.
He also attributed the increase to the commitment and dedication of his officers and men to the tripartite function of the service.
Dimka re-iterated that the enforcement unit of the command remained undeterred in the aggressive patrol against smuggling activities across the land border adding that no campaign of calumny in the pages of news papers would stop the command from combating and suppressing smuggling activities to a minimal level.
The Comptroller noted that a situation where officers performing their legitimate functions were always ambushed and maimed with dangerous weapons cannot be accepted nor tolerated.
Having taken time at different forum like the Customs Community Consultative Forum (CCCF) and the Joint Border Security Meeting (JBSM) to sensitize the border communities on the danger of smuggling to our health and the Nigeria economy at large, the command’s helmsman again called on the Community leaders, opinion leaders and other stakeholders to sensitize those who take pleasure in smuggling at all cost despite government policies banning the importation of such goods.
He emphasized that the host Communities should be seen as collaborators with the Customs and not saboteurs who circumvent the peaceful implementation process of federal government policies.
As vanguard of change, he stressed that it was inevitable that Seme was experiencing change, as such compliance became the only alternative to drive down the agenda and the policy thrust of the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the federal government of Nigeria.
“As a Service and as a Command, we will remain resolute and undaunted in the pursue of our core mandate of suppression of smuggling at the busiest land border in West Africa, generation of maximum revenue and facilitation of legitimate trade across the frontier”, the release quotes the CAC as saying.
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