Senate targets Ali over unremitted N4trillion Customs revenue

There seems to be no let up in the Senate’s ongoing investigation of an alleged N4 trillion revenue leakage in the Nigeria Customs Service.
The Nation can authoritatively report that the quest to probe the unremitted revenue may not be unconnected with the lawmakers’ resolve to aid nation’s economic recovery.
Through its standing committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, the upper legislative chamber has vowed to get to the roots of the alleged fraudulent acts, which it said, were perpetrated between 2006 and 2016.
Giving insight on the fresh moves to probe the Customs high command, Chairman of the Senate committee, Hope Uzodinma who had last week confirmed the investigation into the matter, noted that the revenues were lost through lapses and various infractions.

Vowing to ensure the recovery of the funds, Uzodinma had stated that preliminary investigation by his committee revealed that abuse and non implementation of Foreign Exchange Form M by the Customs management led to the revenue leakage.
According to him, wrong classification of cargo under the Harmonised System Codes, non screening of cargoes coming into Nigeria and lack of adequate ICT infrastructure for revenue collection, were identified in the Customs operations.
Uzodinma further stated that his committee’s investigation also unveiled cases of cancellation of pre-arrival assessment reports and abandonment of single goods declaration in Customs operations within the period under review.
In continuation of the probe which started in March, the Senate committee had, in the first week of June, extended invitation to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, over the alleged infractions. Read more