The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has collected a total of N594, 195,311.23 (Five Hundred and Ninety-Four Million, One Hundred and Ninety-Five Thousand, Three Hundred and Eleven Naira, Twenty-Three) in the month of January 2017.
The Command also made Forty Three (43) seizures with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N92, 385,870.00 (Ninety-Two Million, Three Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy Naira).
A release signed by the command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Selechang Taupyen indicated that the revenue collected was majorly from imported general goods and baggage assessment using the Passengers Baggage Entry Sytem (PBES) platform.
Commenting on the revenue figure, the Customs Area Controller of the command, Compt. Victor Dimka disclosed that the amount realized was commendable adding that the effect of the policy had no negative implication to the Nigeria Customs Service since no revenue was lost to the Federal Government coffers despite the ban on the importation of new and fairly used vehicles through the border.
This he said was because the revenue that was supposed to be collected through the land border was still collected at the seaport without leakages.
Dimka further re-iterated that every officer must ensure total compliance of the policy to succeed saying that all hands must be on deck to ensure that the success of the policy was intelligently driven with a robust relationship between the border command and the host communities.
The Command helmsman enjoined the officers and men to work assiduously as never before to give their best to the service in a challenging time like now.
The CAC re-stated that as the busiest land border command that was strategically located along the corridor that linked other West African countries, the command cannot afford to fail because much was expected from the border Command.
He assured that the command would continue to perform her statutory functions of revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade, combating of smuggling activities across the frontier and securing the nation’s territorial integrity among others.
The Controller said that the Anti-Smuggling Unit of the Command was already frustrating the attempt by smugglers who dare to try the might of the government in smuggling fairly used vehicles through the land border.
In another development, the Customs Area Controller in his welcome address during the visit of the Assistant Comptroller General of Customs Zone ‘A’, ACG Monday Abueh to Seme Area Command, lamented the absence of facilities like the Baggage hall, Parking space, Examination bay, Functional Scanner among others that led to operational setback hence making the border command unequipped to operate in line with the global best practices as obtainable in other developed Countries.
The CAC took the visiting ACG for on the spot assessment of the Baggage Unit, ETLS and Export Seat all located in Benin Republic and the Government Warehouse of the command at the Nigerian site.
The Command also observed the International Customs Day (ICD) celebration on the 26th January, 2017.
The line-up events that commemorated the ICD celebration commenced with a parade, a lecture presentation on the theme, “Data Analysis For Effective Border Management”, to all the invited dignitaries, stakeholders, host communities as well as the relevant security agencies and a novelty football match between the Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Command and the Nigeria Immigration Service Seme.
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