Vehicle import through Nigerian seaport increases, as PTML Customs rake N116bn

By Richards Adeniyi

There are indications that the closure of the nations land borders against importation of vehicles has impacted positively on the seaports as the number of vehicles coming through the ports has increased.

This is even as the PTML Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said that it has raked N116, 524,304,684.00 as revenue from vehicle import between January and September 2019.

There was an increase of N 28, 915,886,401 billion in the revenue against the N 87, 608, 418,283 total revenue collected in 2018.

Speaking in his office recently, spokesman of the command, Yakubu Mohammed attributed the revenue to an increase in vehicle throughput through the terminal, as well as concerted effort of the Area Controller, Compt Florence Dixon.

Yakubu explained that the commands monthly revenue target is N 10.3billion.

Speaking, he said “Before the close of the borders, we get calls that people want to bring their cars through the seaport because they don’t want embarrassment”

“The throughput of cars coming into the seaport is quite increasing, I don’t know if it is because of the closure of the land borders, but I know that our revenue has shot up and the cargo throughput has improved” he said

He added that since the coming onboard of PTML present Area Comptroller, Compt Dixon Florence, she has sensitized all officers to make sure that all hands are on deck to surpass her monthly revenue target.

“Anytime I enter into her office, she is always on the system where she looks out for infractions, under payments or anything, she would revert it back to the releasing officer for Demand Notice (DM) to show that there is lapses on the payment, and if the cargo has been released, she would send it to the gate ti make sure that appropriate DN is raised, even if the cargo has exited, the importer has not gone free, we would send the information to the post clearance audit, where they would call the importer to make sure he pays correctly”

“The Comptroller has been doing this since she resumed here and this was why we made all these revenue”

“She is always on check, and she encourages all the senior officers to be on check, if you know that somebody is watching you somewhere, you will always do the right thing and this has increased our revenue”

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A breakdown of the revenue shows that the command collected N 14.8 billion in January as against N 9.9billion, in February, the command N10billion as against N7.2 billion in corresponding year. In March N 11.8billion was collected as against N8.4 billion.

April revenue stands at N13.2billion against N10.8billion, May revenue stands at N12.3billion against N10.8billion, June stands at N13.3 billion against N10.5 billion. July revenue was N14.8 billion against N9.5 billion.

In August 2019, the command raked N12.6billion as against N9.9billion, in September N13.2 billion was collected against N10.2 billion.