…Nets N799B revenue in 5 months
By Uzor Odigbo
Nigeria Customs Service has announced plans to take stock of all privately owned aircrafts in the country for national security and revenue purposes from June 7 to July 6, 2021
The service has also called on owners of aircrafts to come forward with certain documents to aid the verification exercise
Customs spokesperson, Joseph Attah who disclosed this at a news briefing in Abuja also said the services has collected a total of N799,024,705,961 as revenue between January and May 2021
Attah, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs said the move to do a count of airplanes was informed by duty evasion attempts by persons he described as highly placed.
Customs , according to him will demand certain documents from private aeroplane owners which includes Aircraft Certificate of Registration; Nigeria Civil Aviation Autjority’s Flight Operations Compliance Certificate (FOCC); NCAA’s Maintenance Compliance Certificate (MCC); NCAA’s Permit for Non-Commercial Flights (PNCF) and Temporary Import Permit (TIP) where application
Attah said :”In line with the need to ensure strict compliance with all regulations, especially at this time of challenging security situation and reluctance of some highly placed individuals to pay taxes, Nigeria Customs Service will be taking stock of all privately owned Aircrafts in the Country.
“This is to ensure strict compliance with all relevant regulations governing importation of such Aircrafts.
“Consequently, Nigeria Customs Service, in line with its statutory functions as provided for in Part III Sections 27, 35, 37, 45, 46, 47, 52, 56, 63 & 64; Part XI Sections 144, 145, 155, 160, 161 & 164 and Part XII Sections 167, 168, 169 173 & 174 of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) hereby invites ALL the owners of Private Aircrafts in the country to come forward with their relevant importation clearance documents for verification.
“The documents sought for verification are:
Aircraft Certificate of Registration
NCAA’s Flight Operations Compliance Certificate (FOCC)
NCAA’s Maintenance Compliance Certificate (MCC)
NCAA’s Permit for Non-Commercial Flights (PNCF) and
Temporary Import Permit (TIP) (where application).
“All such owners or their representatives are to report to 305, Tariff and Trade Department, Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters, 3, Abidjan Street, Wuse Zone 3, Abuja-FCT from Monday 7th June through Tuesday 6th July, 2021 between 10:00am and 5:00pm daily, with all the relevant Aircraft documents for verification.
“The Service therefore looks forward to full compliance by all private Aircrafts owners in the country”
On revenue Attah said the N799,024,705,961.00 collected between 1st January and 30th May 2021 is higher than the N226,110,610,991 collected within same period of last year.
He attributed the increase in revenue collection to strict implementation of all extant rules governing Imports, Exports and Excise in Nigeria, strategic deployment of Officers, Automation of the processes and regulations.
Other reasons he listed includes increasing inclination of Officers and Men to put national interest above self,robust stakeholder sensitization,Increasing level of compliance from stakeholders and Improved working relation with the National Assembly