The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, has cautioned that the WTO agreement and the Africa Free Trade Agreement recently signed by Nigeria will impact negatively on the country’ revenue generation drive in the coming years.
The Customs CG gave the warning on Thursday while presenting his agency’s projection on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework for 2021 to 2023 to the Senate.
According to Ali, the two agreements will allow goods to come into Nigeria at zero tariffs.
He said this situation will in addition to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, adversely affect Nigeria’s revenue.
Ali said that despite this situation, the Customs Service has generated N837billion as of July 2020.
In making projections for 2021, the Customs boss said his agency hopes to generate a total revenue of N1.465 trillion.
This will include import and export and all special levies.
In 2022, Customs eyes a total revenue of N1.704 trillion and N 1.756 trillion in 2023.
The Customs CG, however, lamented the policy arrangement that makes it possible for Coca-Cola to continue to produce in Nigeria without paying anything to the Nigerian government.
In his reaction, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, said that while there is the need to protect indigenous companies, it’s a misnomer for such privilege to be extended to the likes of Coca-Cola, which is an international brand and a dominant player in the beverage industry.
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On stamp duties; Lawan rejected the projection of N500 billion by the Federal Inland Revenue and the Budget and National Planning Office, stressing that Nigeria can generate more with the current volume of electronic transactions.
Editor: Tunde Orebiyi
