Customs Generate N17.565bn From Undervalued, Smuggled Items

The Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service at the weekend reported that it collected about N17 billion from wrong classification of goods by importers.

The unit listed the seized items during the period under review as including vehicles, pharmaceuticals, textiles, foreign parboiled rice, tomato paste, second-hand clothing among others. It said that debit notes were raised on importers who under-declared their cargoes for lesser Customs duty.

The Customs Area Controller of the unit, Acting Comptroller Usman Yahaya said N15.6 billion was generated from contrabands seized from smugglers, while N1.4 billion was raised from wrong classification, transfer of value and false declaration of cargoes.

He clarified: “The total duty paid value of N15.6 bn was premised on seized contrabands, while the N1.3 billion were revenue from the unit interventions arising from wrong classifications.

“A quick glance of our spectacular seizure reports from 7th January, 2020, shows 64 exotic vehicles including two (2) bullet proofs, 18,760 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice valued at N469 million, 1,338kg of Indian hemp worth N201 million, and 147 sacks (9,504kg) of Pangolin scales worth N10.4 billion.

“Others are 3,059 cartons of tomato paste, 10,653 cartons of frozen poultry products, 5,423 kegs of 25 litres each of vegetable oil, 56,472 bundles of printed textiles valued at N565 million, 66 packs of Tramadol, 872 bales of second hand clothing worth N61 million, 11,077 cartons of frozen products worth N177 million”, Yahaya added.

According to him, also intercepted were 5,423 kegs of vegetable oil valued at N87 million, 7,549 jerry cans of petroleum motor spirit (PMS) valued at N27 million, 5 containers load of pharmaceuticals valued at N3 billion and 64 units of motorcycles used for smuggling valued at N565 million, among others.