The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning may have stirred the hornets’ nest with its recent proposal to have the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) take over revenue collection from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The ministry floated the idea as stakeholders gathered during a public hearing for the amendment of the Customs and Excise Management Amendment Bill by the National Assembly.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Aliyu Ahmed who spoke during the hearing, said the idea is to ensure that revenue collection is unified and for the Customs Service to fully concentrate in its statutory responsibility of trade facilitation.
Ahmed argued that the single most important function of the Customs Service anywhere in the world is trade facilitation.
He added that in other climes, the best practice was in unifying revenue collection.
He added: “But in the introduction of the Chairman, I hear him talk about revenue, collection of revenue. This is the secondary service of the Customs all over the world.
“Revenue collection by Customs is a distraction. The reason is that the main function of the Nigeria Customs Service is trade facilitation. But the trade facilitation has been pushed to the background because of the focus on revenue collection. In other climes, the best practice is moving towards unifying revenue collection.
“If we want to go that far, and achieve that best practice, our submission would be to move revenue to the Federal Inland Revenue Service so that Customs Service can really focus on trade facilitation function.”