By Stephen Ubanna
Not many are surprised at what Ahmad .B. Shuaibu , a former Coordinator, Comptroller General of Customs , CGC, Strike Force , Team A, Lagos Zonal office and now Acting Comptroller, Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Ogun II, Command, is doing at the essentially Excise Command.
The Acting Customs Comptroller may have taken his expertise in recovering billions of lost revenue from fraudulent importers with their agents at the Lagos ports of Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Multi-services Terminal Limited, PTML, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, KLT, Phases I and II and the several Bonded Terminals in the nation’s commercial nerve center to repeat same in Ogun, home state of for President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Between October,2022 and now, Acting Comptroller Shuaibu , has demonstrated that he can deliver on his mandate : improve on the Command monthly revenue collection of N1.5 billion. As a prelude to achieving that, he was said to have sought the Cooperation and support of the manufacturing and producing companies scattered all over the state, although the critical Industries are said to be located at Ota, Agbara, Ifo, ad Ijebu-Ode, and Abeokuta.
In assuming duties at the Command last October, he was said to have urged the Management of Excise Factories ‘’to be Law abiding and keep within the dictates of the extant Laws’’ to avoid playing into his hands that may result in sealing up their factories for contravening the government Fiscal policy.
The Ogun state based Excise Factories, Management Team, may have gotten the message right when he said: We will ensure that we do not only meet the Command revenue target but to surpass, it’’, meaning that they must endeavor to pay the appropriate Excise duties without trying to cut corners.
Described as’’ an apologetic revenue mobiliser and crime buster’’ by Compt. Bala. S. T, his predecessor, now retired, Acting Comptroller Shuaibu, and his Management Team , were said to have gone back to the drawing Board to restrategise to ensure that he Excise Factories operating in state remain Compliant without giving the officers much trouble in doing their work.
He may not have juggled the field officers, inherited from his predecessor, who sources had said had a close working relationship with some of Companies but the Customs Comptroller who had put them under close watch, may had forced them ‘’to show more seriousness in collecting the exact Excise duties from the manufacturing, producing Companies for the government’’.
The Non –Compliant Companies were said to have been forced to sit up and do right thing by making ‘’prompt payment of appropriate Excise duty and other relevant charges’’ or be surcharged , which runs into millions of naira.
This is evident going by the Excise duty collection by the Command in the last three months of 2022. Giving an insider information, an elated huaibu, had said that it generated and paid about N6.492 billion into the Single Treasury Account, TSA, with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, under the Leadership of Goodwin Emefiele, who is currently having a running battle withYusuf Magaji Bichi led Department of State security, DSS, over alleged terrorism financing and economic rime of national dimension.
Indeed, this is a remarkable improvement to the Command’s Excise duty collections in the first quarter to the third quarters, 2022, of the year, supervised by retired Compt. Bala, the former Area Controller.
Under the immediate past Comptroller of the Command, he was said to have generated and remitted into the government coffers N5.2 billion, in the first quarter but remitted N4.3 billion in the second quarter, of 2022, which had been attributed to the downturn in the world economy due to the emergence of the Asian country of China emerged coronavirus, popular, COVID 19.
The situation was said to have been made worse for some of the Ogun based manufacturing and producing Companies which were put under lock and key as they could not reach out to their oversea customers, particular, the Companies and traders from China, to place order for their raw materials, Chemicals and other Inputs needed for their production. It was not surprising why the Command revenue dropped significantly in the second quarter of 2022.
The various measures put in place in place by World HealthOrganisation, WHO, and the vaccines that were produced by the developed economies, like China, and the North American country of the United States, US, United Kingdom, UK, and the European Union, EU, which were distributed to member nations of the United Nations, UN, to address the pandemic may have restored hope to the Companies as many of them returned to their factories to resume production and continue to pay their Excise duties.
President Muhammadu Buhari, may have helped the Excise Commands in boosting their revenue collection with’’ the approval for the implementation of the 2022, Fiscal policy Measures made up of Supplementary Protection Measures, PM, and pay their excise duties for the Implementation of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Common External Tariff, CET, 2022-2026 and Excise duties on Non Alcoholic beverages, Alcoholic beverages , Tobacco products as well as telecommunication facilities, which was said to have come into effect on April 1st, 2022.
The then Ogun II, Command Customs Comptroller may have used the second quarter of 2022, to put the necessary structures in place to collect the appropriate Excise duties on the new items. The government was said to have also introduced ‘’Import Adjustment Tax, IAT, list, with additional taxes, levy, on 172 tariffs line of the extant ECOWAS CET’’to boost the Customs Commands revenue collection.
The Ogun II, Command, may have cashed in on the Excise duties on the new items and THE IAT, on the 172, items, on the extant ECOWAS-CET, tariff line of goods to collect more excise duties for the government. The fallout was that in the third quarter of 2022, it collected from the Excise Factories and traders about N6 billion, in third quarter of 2022.
In taking effective control and monitoring of the Command Excise factories at the various locations in the state and the Free Trade Zones, FTZ, , Acting Comptroller Shuaibu , was said to have engaged the services of informants who were said to have been deployed into the field for massive intelligence gathering which were processed and passed on to the officers to do their work in collecting appropriate Excise duties for the government without compromise.
This may have enhanced the Collaboration between the Command Excise duties officers and the stakeholders in the supply chains which had translated to the Command improved performance and operational relationship with the stakeholders in the recent time.
Going by the feat achieved by Acting Comptroller Shuabu and his officers, who have cued into his revenue drive by blocking all Excise revenue leakages in the south west state, between October 2022 and now, Maritime analysts are optimistic that that going by the way he is pushing on in Ogun II, Command, he appears prepared to set a track record that might be difficult to be rivaled by any other Excise duty Command , within the country, now or in the future. Vintage Shuaibu.
