New Telegraph

Benin trade policy impedes Customs revenue

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has attributed the drought in imports along the Abidjan Lagos Corridor (ALCO) to the trade policy introduced by the Republic of Benin, which traders and indeed the service consider hostile to Nigeria. It was learnt that the import and export trade have not been enhanced since the opening of the land borders by the Federal Government as the traders are still bracing the challenges of having been out of business for over two years. According to the Area Controller of Seme Border Command, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, the command collected only N1.41billion on 74 trucks under ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS) and N4 52million as duty on 81 baggage which included good products and beverages produced within the sub-region in January 2023.

Within the period, he explained that the command also recorded only five declarations of import with a total of N13.38 million paid as duty. Nnadi stressed that under export, it processed 122 trucks bearing 3.77million metric tonnes of made in Nigeria cargo with Free On Board value of N523.7million and National Export Supervision Scheme Fees of N2.62million. According to him, “it is important to note that the 2022 fiscal Policy Measures by the Federal Ministry of Finance lifted the ban on export of goods imported into Nigeria hitherto prohibited under Item 8 Schedule 6 of the Common External Tariff. “However, this is subject to the exporters obtaining approval from the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and payment of 2.5 per cent export surcharge of the present value of the goods.

“The traders are yet to take full advantage of this gesture and we call on them to optimise the opportunities offered by the policy. Other sources of revenue for the Command are fees collected from the auction sales of seized items especially petroleum products and other perishable items. “The core mandate of the Service in Seme includes generation of revenue for the Federal Government, suppression of smuggling and facilitation of legitimate trade.”

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