By Paul Effiong, Abuja
House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has ordered the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, to immediately suspend the one percent charges under the Comprehensive Import Suspension Scheme, CISS.
Chairman of the committee, Leke Abejide gave the directive yesterday when the Nigeria Customs Service appeared before the committee for the defence of its 2025 budget at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The chairman threatened to sue the service if it refuses to obey parliament by suspending the illegality of collecting one percent charges under CISS Scheme.
According to the chairman, his committee is not unaware that CISS is not backed by any law in Nigeria.
“It is not LFN and even your seven percent cost of collection is equally illegal, as it is not in the LFN. The only legal source of income backex by the Act of Parliament as signed by the president into law and gazetted in the LFN is the Free-On Board, FOB, which can be found in Section 18(1a) of Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023 (Federal Republic of Nigeria official Gazette No. 105 Lagos – June 9, 2023 Vol.110,” he said.
The committee thereafter proposed a joint meeting between the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Customs and Excise where decisive decisions and submission on the budget proposal of N1.132trillion will be made.
The committee also alleged that sometimes when they exercise their constitutional power by either adding or reducing the budget as proposed by agency/ministry in order to enable them function effectively, many Nigerians usually misunderstand them, claiming that they are padding the budget which has no place in any known law.
The Comptroller-General of Customs was represented by the Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Finance, Administration and Technical Services, Bello Jibo.
In a document showing the 2024 budget expenditure by the service, the personnel cost stood at 43.53 percent, overhead cost at 46.34 percent and capital project performance at 45.68 percent which showed that the service surpassed the last year target.
