Senate panel clears Customs of N62.2bn under-remittance

The Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) on Tuesday vacated a query of N62.2 billion in under-remittances slammed on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation in the 2019 audit report.

The committee held an investigative session with the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, regarding 77 total queries on financial infractions raised against Customs in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports.

Following the session, the committee also resolved to set up a sub-committee to reconcile the remaining 74 queries.

As directed by the Chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe North), the representative of the Auditor-General read the query to the Customs CG.

It stated that in 2017, while N691.242 billion was the total revenue collected by Customs, only N629.23 billion was remitted, leaving a balance of N62.2 billion unremitted into the Federation Account.

In his response, the Customs CG explained that the N62.2 billion classified as an under-remittance in the 2019 audit report was actually the total sum of levies collected by Customs on behalf of other agencies, which are not meant for remittance into the Federation Account.

“The under-remittance of N62.2 billion levelled against Customs in the 2019 audit report was wrongly arrived at through the misclassification of levies collected.

“While most levies are to be collected and remitted into the Federation Account, others—like the ones on the local production of wheat, textiles, and wines—do not go into the Federation Account. The totality of these accounted for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion,” Adeniyi said.

Similar explanations were offered by the Customs CG on queries two and three, prompting a member of the committee, Senator Babangida Hussaini (Jigawa North-West), to wonder why Customs allowed the queries to reach the stage of a formal committee investigation.

The Customs boss, however, reminded the committee members that the years under review spanned a period when the Senate and Customs shared a frosty relationship.

On the strength of his explanations, the committee resolved to set up a small reconciliation committee to meet with Customs and resolve the issues raised in the remaining 74 queries.

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