The Senate on Tuesday passed the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) 2020 budget of N238.15 billion.
The budget was passed after the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff presented its report at plenary for consideration.
The passage did not however happen without opposition by some of the senators who raised concerns that the budget report presented by the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff was not detailed.
The senators, had noted that the report presented by the Committee Chairman, Sen. Francis Alimikhena (APC-Edo) was not tidy, noting that some of the figures were not adding up.
They also noted that the NCS like others Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have for the past six years not submitted their audited reports.
The Senators who kicked against the report, noted that Customs cannot be getting seven per cent from revenue collected, two percent from all Value Added Tax (VAT), allocation from federation account and other revenues and still be receiving allocation from the Federation Account.
In his contribution on the report, Sen. James Manager (PDP-Delta) said : “This report is too scanty for us to look at. The Committee should have taken a proper look at the report before submitting it to us. We need to look at the federation account properly.”
On his part Sen.Gabriel Suswam said that before the Customs budget could be passed, proper explanation should be made, so that the senate would understand why some figures are not adding up.
Sen.Solomon Olamilekan (APC-Lagos) had earlier observed that the seven per cent allocated to Customs from revenue generated was enough to defray its expenditure.
He, however, said NCS was still drawing funds from the federation account despite the allocation of seven per cent.
Earlier, Sen. Alimikhena while presenting the committee’s report explained that the proposal was based on Federal Government’s Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
He said a total expenditure of N238.15 billion was been proposed for the 2020.
Highlights of the budget proposal, according to him, includes, the establishment of the E-Customs Project through massive deployment of information communication technology to eliminate personal interface in customs operations.
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