The Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has revealed plans to investigate how over N4 trillion was lost due to revenue leakage in the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The period under review will cover 2006 and 2016.
In the investigation, the Senate committee will look into the tenures of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Also, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government will be probed.
The probe is coming amid a yet-to-be resolved face-off between the Senate and the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd). The committee has, however, condemned the inability of the technical committee on the implementation of comprehensive import supervision scheme to ensure that the provisions of the Act are followed to the latter.
Disclosing this to journalists in Abuja, Chairman, Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma, said the committee would stop at nothing in recovering any money lost due to lapses and infractions.
According to him, preliminary investigations by the committee revealed that the N4 trillion leakage was as a result of various forms of infractions, including abuse and non-implementation of Foreign Exchange forms.
He added that other factors responsible for the leakage were wrong classification of cargo under Harmonised System Codes, non-screening of cargoes coming into Nigeria and lack of adequate ICT infrastructure for revenue collection, stressing that cancellation of pre-arrival assessment reports and abandonment of single goods declaration were equally responsible for the leakage.
Uzodinma said: “The committee frowns at the quantum of revenue losses and it will stop at nothing in ensuring that those involved in this ugly act would return all recoverable monies with them
http://sunnewsonline.com/n4tr-customs-revenue-senate-probes-buhari-obasanjo-yaradua-jonathan/
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