Customs recovers N107m from undervalued cargoes

The Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, yesterday said it recovered N107.82 million from undervalued cargoes in September 2022. It said the cargos were falsely declared by dubious importers who are in the habit of short-changing the federal government of its actual revenue. Speaking on the unit’s revenue profile for the […]

The Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, yesterday said it recovered N107.82 million from undervalued cargoes in September 2022.

It said the cargos were falsely declared by dubious importers who are in the habit of short-changing the federal government of its actual revenue.

Speaking on the unit’s revenue profile for the month of September 2022, the Acting Controller in charge of FOU Zone A, Hussein Kehinde Ejibunu, said the unit also made a series of seizures with total duty paid value of N622.41m.

The controller said the seizure was made to further discourage perpetrators of smuggling and duty evasion, since the law is not a respecter of anyone, and does not accept ignorance as an excuse for violation.

The FOU Zone A boss disclosed that the unit dealt an onslaught on smugglers and their collaborators since September marked the end of the third quarter of the year and also draws everyone closer to the end of the year when smugglers show more desperation.

“Chief among the September seizures was a massive discovery of bales of 1,955 bales of used clothing in an abandoned building around the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex.

“We made the discovery and evacuation using combined strategies of intelligence, tact and enforcement. Also, within the same period, a large cache of premium motor spirit (PMS) ingeniously concealed inside sacks was intercepted on the Badagry axis of Lagos State. Other seizures recorded within the same period are 7,328 x 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice,121,550 litres of premium motor spirit, and 68 cartons of frozen poultry,” he said.