Onne Customs generated N188.6 billion in 2021

The Area ll Command of Nigeria Customs Service in Onne Port, Rivers State, said it realised N188.6 billion revenue from January to December 2021, surpassing the previous year’s record with N69 billion.

The Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Command, Auwal Mohammed, in a statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Ifeoma Onuigbo Ojekwu, said the collection was the highest in the history of the command.

On enforcement and anti-smuggling activities, the CAC revealed that 34 seizures were made last year with a total duty paid value of N11.9 billion.

According to him, prominent among the seizures are 1,387 cartons of tramadol falsely declared to evade detection, rice, engine parts, vegetable oil and other concealed items with intent by defiant agents and importers to evade accurate duty payments.

On export within the period under review, the command processed 1,083,846 metric tonnes of cargo with a total free on board (FOB) value of $402,367,568. The Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) value of the total export is N764,462,724.

While commending the officers of the command for their relentless commitment to ensuring the facilitation of legitimate trade and preventing the smuggling of any form, Mohammed urged them to intensify efforts in carrying out all NCS functions in the command in 2022.

He advised them to brace up with technology as the procured scanners will be deployed to use soon for faster cargo clearance and easier detection of concealments, thereby facilitating trade.

He said the command will continue to build on achieved successes recorded through customs community relations efforts.

“As we enter 2022, let us continue to blend our enforcement capability with intelligence, to always detect all attempts at circumventing the law through false declarations, under-declarations and concealments,” he said.

The CAC warned that importers and agents who attempt smuggling through Onne port this 2022, will get their cargo seized and risk facing arrest for prosecution in accordance with the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA)