By Andy Asemota
The Senate has approved N1,678,715,061,014 for the 2021 financial year budget of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). This shows a marginal increase above the initial revenue target of the Customs for the year 2020 which stood at N1.679 trillion but was revised to N1.380 trillion due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A breakdown of the revenue framework of the 2021 budget shows Federation Account target of N1,500,096,484,401 and Non-Federation Account target of N1,78,61,576,613.

The expected income profile of the budget indicates seven percent cost of collection for 2021 (N111,573,991,091); two percent VAT share of NCS (7.5bn); 60% share of CISS (N47bn) and retained earnings for ongoing projects, 2020, (N91bn).

Presenting the report of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise, and Tariff on the budget, the committee chairman, Sen. Francis Akimikhena (Edo North, APC), said the initial proposal of 2021 NCS revenue target which stood at N1.465 trillion was deemed inadequate by the committee and increased to N1.678 trillion by the committee.

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The increase, according to him, followed expansions of excisable items, excise duties of carbonated drinks; tariff review on vehicles; reopening of borders; and official increase of Naira from N381 to N410 to one dollar, which were not captured in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2020.

In his concluding remarks, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, directed that the life span of the budget remained 12 calendar months and its implementation should be spread throughout the year and not beyond.