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Reps committee approves N369b budget for Customs

By Adamu Abuh, Abuja
15 February 2022   |   4:03 am
The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has approved N369 billion for personnel, overhead, and capital budget of the service for the 2022 fiscal year.

Custom

The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has approved N369 billion for personnel, overhead, and capital budget of the service for the 2022 fiscal year.

Customs also aims to improve on its revenue with of N2.1 billion, The Guardian gathered.

Chairman of the committee, Leke Abejide, who presided over yesterday’s budget defence of Customs, emphasised the need for improved service delivery by the Customs at the nation’s ports.

Consequently, Customs is collaborating with relevant government agencies for effective implementation of the country’s Finance Act 2021, which aims at increasing revenue for budget implementation.

Abejide urged the service to improve its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to restore the people’s confidence in the Customs for improved service delivery.

According to the lawmaker, the National Assembly is working towards ensuring proper equipping, training and retraining of personnel of the service for better results.

“The committees of Customs of both chambers of the Senate and House of Representatives have concluded that reasonable amount enough to put back into use the 13 scanners out of the 22 that collapsed is needed,” Abejide emphasised.

The committee’s report, according to him, will be laid before the House at resumption of plenary for onward passage.

Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), who appeared before the lawmakers during the defence, emphasised the need for stringent measures to be put in place to plug leakages.

Ali said the service is maintaining collaboration with relevant agencies of government to stop tax evasion by some companies and businesses for the benefit of the country.

He added: “One of the key focuses of the service in the 2022 fiscal year is the full implementation of its operation. E-Customs project will also include the automation of Customs agency licences and vehicles identification numbers that are expected to enhance the general performance of the service. Hopefully, by March this year, the project will take off.”

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