The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has approved the sum of N1.132 trillion as the 2025 budget for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), even as it issued a stern warning to the agency over the continued collection of controversial levies not backed by law.
The budget proposal, presented on Monday by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, represented by Deputy Comptroller-General Bello Mohammed Jibo, includes allocations of N247.16 billion for personnel costs, N239.97 billion for overhead, and N645.42 billion for capital expenditure.
Adeniyi disclosed that the Customs Service has set a 2025 revenue target of N6.584 trillion, broken down into N3.853 trillion for the Federation Account, N1.081 trillion for non-Federation revenue, and N1.650 trillion from import Value Added Tax (VAT).
Other sources include the legally backed 4% Free-On-Board (FOB), projected at N1.070 trillion, and 2% VAT share amounting to N33.01 billion, along with N29.05 billion allocated to capital projects.
Despite the budget approval, the Committee, chaired by Hon. Leke Abejide, strongly condemned the continued collection of the Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) and the 7% Cost of Collection, both of which it described as illegal and not backed by any law.
In a decisive move, the lawmakers issued a June 30 ultimatum to the Customs Service to cease such collections or face legal action.
Abejide said the committee was shocked to discover that no revenue was recorded in 2024 from the 60% share of the 1% CISS, which previously supported Customs’ operational funding, despite the NCS surpassing its 2024 revenue target by over N1 trillion, generating N6.105 trillion against a target of N5.079 trillion.
“You exceeded your revenue target in 2024, yet your personnel, overhead, and capital projects were poorly funded—standing at just 43.53%, 46.34%, and 45.68% performance respectively,” Abejide said.
“The 1% CISS was created to pay service providers like COTECNA, SGS, and GLOBAL SCAN, as well as Web Fountaine for automation. Now that 80% of those functions have been taken over by NCS, why is your 60% share missing?”
He insisted that the CISS and 7% collection charges are not recognised by the Laws of the Federation (LFN) and have no place in the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, which only validates the 4% FOB as a legitimate source of Customs income.
> “As a democratic nation, we can no longer tolerate revenue collections founded on executive fiats from the military era. If you continue after June 30, 2025, you will be taken to court for violating the laws of the land,” the committee chair warned.
Abejide clarified that Section 18(1a) of the Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023—gazetted in Official Gazette No. 105 Vol.110 dated June 9, 2023—is the only provision that gives the NCS the legal authority to retain revenue through the 4% FOB charge.
The lawmakers vowed to enforce strict compliance, warning that continued disregard for legislative oversight would attract full legal consequences.
'
'
'
'Do you want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity for a product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +2348183319097 Email: platformtimes@gmail.com
We are committed to impactful investigative journalism for human interest and social justice. Your donation will help us tell more stories. Kindly donate any amount HERE
