The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said threaten that it will henceforth publish the list of beneficiaries of duty payment concessions who default in honouring their obligations.
Dikko Inde Abdullahi, comptroller-general of Customs, disclosed this in Abuja while reviewing the activities of the Revenue Recovery Team set up to address dwindling revenue collection by the NCS.
Deputy Comptroller Wale Adeniyi, Customs public relations officer, in a press statement sent to journalists, said defaulters include importers who were given various forms of deferred payment concessions to avoid accumulation of demurrage and facilitate trade while others in this category have un-utilized Risks Assessment Reports (RARs) still hanging in the system “long after the departure of the Service Providers who issued them during their dispensation.”
“We can no longer tolerate them abusing the privilege. We are reminding the Banks that their Bonds were provided to guarantee payment of Customs duty. We have given defaulters only one week to pay all outstanding duties, failure of which their names will be published in the national dailies,” Adeniyi quoted Dikko as saying.
The Customs Comptroller-General also directed that the bank bonds secured to cover the defaulting transactions be converted to duty payments at the expiration of the grace period.
Within the first month of the recovery team’s activities, a total of N2.5 billion have been recovered from unpaid assessments and unutilized Risk Assessment Reports.
On temporary importation, the Customs spokesman said a total of N1.6 billion outstanding has been established against three beneficiaries who contravened the regulations.
“The defaulting beneficiaries applied for and enjoyed temporary importation concession while they had active Forms M and Risk Assessment Reports against their names.
“The Team has over 2000 companies under investigation. Transactions of RARs and unpaid assessment of these companies are undergoing a comprehensive audit to confirm evidence of RAR utilization and duty payments,” Adeniyi stated.