House of Representatives Committee on Customs Monday deferred the consideration of the 2018 budget of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, to April 17, 2018, following discovery of irregularities in its document.
Though a dealdline had been given to all standing committees to submit all budgetary proposals of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, of government for 2018 nex week, in readiness for their final consideration and passage into law by the House later this month, chairman of the House Committee, James Faleke, said that of the Customs may not be feasible.
Announcing the postponement at the defence, Faleke attributed conflicting figures of N229 million and N69 million respectively as contributions to the National Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, and for insurance payments to customs officers under the consolidated personnel cost budget of the service for the deferment.
Incidentally, most members of the House committee also queried the discrepancies discovered in the figures, repetition of items contained in the budget under various sub-heads and directed the Customs management, led by its Comptroller-General, Col. Hameed Ali, retd, to go back with the document.
Faleke said: “We have a timeline to submit the 2018 budget by the National Assembly but with what we’re seeing here, l don’t think the Customs is ready.
“The moment we can’t be on the same page legislatively, we can’t proceed. So this budget defense hearing is stepped down to April 17 to enable the Customs put its house in order.”
Earlier at the defence, Col. Ali had informed the committee that the service collected revenue of N1.037 trillion, made up of N835.53 billion and Value Added Tax of N202.37 billion on imports, thereby surpassing the revenue target of N 772.88 billion set for 2017.
This, he said, was irrespective of the federal government’s trade and economic policies which embargoed the importation of 41 items from accessing foreign exchange at the official rate, non-functional scanners at Customs scanning sites and smuggling through the borders.
He hinted that the placement of only two items, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, under excise control, hindered the achievement of the N45.22billion excise revenue targets for 2017.
On the 2018 budget, Ali said that Customs had a revenue target of N880.25 billion, adding that the agency was planning to spend N103.53 billion, consisting of N48.68 billion for personnel cost, an overhead cost of N14.20 billion and a capital vote of N40.65 billion.
