TheCable

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it has a revenue projection of N3.019 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year. 

Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of NCS, spoke on Monday when he appeared before the house of representatives committee on customs and excise to defend the budget for 2022.

The NCS had last year projected the sum of N1.33 trillion as its revenue for 2022 but the lawmakers described it as “too low”.

Speaking on the revised projection, Ali said it is based on the medium-term expenditure framework approved by the national assembly.

“The revenue target for NCS in 2022 financial year is set at N3.019 trillion consisting of N2.019 trillion for federation, N253.23 billion for non-federation and N746.96 billion for import VAT collection,” he said.

“When compared with the 2021 revenue target, the 2022 revenue target is higher by N965.42 billion or 31.98 percent.”

Ali said the projected revenue for 2022 is “very ambitious” but the service will work hard to meet the target.

“It is hard looking at the parameters. It is our hope that COVID will begin to subside, things will begin to improve and the economy will also begin to improve,” he said.

Ali said the proposed budget expenditure for the NCS is N369.14 billion for the 2022 fiscal year.

Giving a breakdown of the budget expenditure, he said the sum of N108.85 billion is for personnel cost, N45.89 billion is overhead cost while capital cost will gulp N214.30 billion.

After his presentation, the committee approved N3.019 trillion and N369.14 billion as the NCS’s revenue target and budget respectively. 

Leke Abejide, chairman of the committee, said the NSC will not be allowed to defend the 2023 budget proposal if there is no “significant performance” in the 2022 capital projects.