THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Seme Border Command, recorded a revenue of N432 million last month. This is an increase of about 65 per cent, over what was generated in January 2009.

The figure is also 46 per cent higher than what was realised in December.

The revenue could have been higher, but for the high volume of ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) that came in through the Seme border. The CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) value of goods traded under the ETLS in January alone was N950 million, meaning that on the average, additional Customs duties of above N190 million could have been generated. For 2009, total ETLS goods worth N2.8 billion were handled.

The NCS spokesman, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, while confirming the figures, however, said that the NCS has also started the implementation of Federal Government’s bilateral preferential trade arrangement with the Benin Republic on manufactured goods known as Joint Committee in Commerce (JCC).

"Under this scheme, goods under import prohibition in Nigeria are allowed duty free access into Nigeria once it is ascertained that they are produced in the Benin Republic," Adeniyi said. He cited as examples cement , textiles, vegetable oil, soaps and detergents, and confectionaries, all of which in 2009, generated N206 million revenue that came into Nigeria through Seme.

He explained further that such importers were compulsorily registered, alongside their products and the corridors of importation.

"Corridors of importation of goods under JCC are usually specified to enable Customs to freely identify and process their goods as they come in," he observed, stressing that except this fact was adequately understood, un-informed industry watchers might continue to raise alarm that contraband goods were being let into the country even in the day with impunity.

He debunked assertions that the NCS and other agencies at the border station had compromised their position, noting that January which is dubbed the controversial month, was, indeed, the period when the Service posted its highest revenue figure in recent years.

Source: The Nation