Customs Area Controller, Tin Can Island command, Comptroller Stephen Oloyede

The Tin Can Island command of the Nigeria Customs Service has recorded a revenue growth of 27.5per cent in the first half of year 2022. The command collected a total of N274.billion as against the N229.3billion collected in the comparative period of last year, which represents an increase of 27.5per cent.

The command within the period also stepped up its enforcement and anti-smuggling activities, which led to the seizure of many illicit goods comprising arms and ammunitions, machetes, vehicles, used clothes, drugs and other prohibited items, most of which have been handed over to relevant government agencies with a duty paid value of N1.3billion.

Briefing newsmen on the mid-year activities of the command (January-June, 2022) in Apapa, Friday, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Steven Oloyede, attributed the superlative revenue performance partly to the new VIN-Valuation system, which has simplified valuation processes on imported vehicles.

He disclosed that there were pockets of teething challenges during the initial period of the introduction of the policy largely due to stakeholders’ low understanding of the system, adding that most of those challenges and fears expressed by the stakeholders have been addressed, assuring that the command’s revenue would even increase more in the coming months.

“So far, the VIN-Valuation has helped the command to achieve an expedited clearance process due to the predictability of value assessment, increase in revenue generation, increased ease of doing business and generation of accurate statistics for the Federal Government.

“At the command level, we faced challenges at the early stages of the deployment of the system due to the degree of understanding the process, most especially on the part of the stakeholders. Never the less, we have been able to overcome these challenges as we put into force Article 2 of the Trade Facilitation Agreement through continuous engagement and consultation with the relevant stakeholders, which led to updates and upgrade of the service to address some of these challenges.

“We have also strengthened the risk management structure to mitigate the consistent attempts by some non-compliant agents to abuse the process through acts of commercial fraud such as falsification of documents and forgery of signatures.

“The objective of the VIN-Valuation service is to simplify and facilitate the Customs clearance process of legitimately imported vehicles by providing a uniform, fair and neutral value across board on vehicles with identical brands, model and year of manufacture in line with the provisions of Article V111 of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs GATT, 1994”, the CAC said.

The command also within the review period intensified its enforcement and anti-smuggling campaign, which led to the seizure 145kg of Colarado (Indian Hemp), concealed in two units of Ridgeline truck and two units of Toyota Corolla cars, 206, 000 pieces of machetes, 640 baled of used clothes, 236, 500 pairs of used shoes, 62, 500 pieces of new ladies’ shoes and 1, 670, 400 pieces of Chloroquine injection (5mg/5ml).

Others include 48, 850 rolls of cigarettes, 23, 800 tins of sodium bromate and baking powder, 3, 303 pieces of motor batteries concealed in three containers falsely declared as Toyota Hiace Buses, four pieces of used Mack truck heads, one unit of used 2008 model of Toyota Sequoia, one unit of 2008 model of used Mercedes Benz GL450 and one unit of used 2011 model of Toyota 4Runner; all with a duty paid value of N1.3billion.

It was also gathered that the command has already handed over 300 rounds of live ammunitions, two empty magazines, one pistol and one suspect to the Directorate of State Service DSS.

The CAC, who expressed optimism that the command would further improve on the current revenue performance, especially having addressed some of the initial challenges associated with the VIN-Valuation system, however acknowledged the contributions of the Customs Intelligence and Valuation units, the Special Strike force, the DSS, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria SON and the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC, which facilitated the seizures.