Senate passes N238bn budget for Customs

The Senate has approved N238bn as the budget of the NCS for the 2020 fiscal year.

The approval of the amount followed the presentation of the report of the Senate Committee on Customs, Tariff and Excise by its Chairman, Senator Francis Ailimikhena.

The amount comprised Personnel Cost of N98.61bn, representing 41.41 per cent of the budget.

It also included Overhead Cost of N15.95bn, representing 6.70 per cent and capital expenditure of N123.59bn, representing 51.89 per cent of the total amount, according to the committee.

Hardly had the Alimikhena presented the report than the chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Adeola Solomon, picked holes in the report.

He expressed concern over the two per cent VAT shares collected by Customs in addition to funding from the federation account.

Adeola said the Customs, as a revenue collection agency, should not be drawing funds from the federation’s account under whatever guise.

Senator Gabriel Suswan also said the Alimikhena committee’s report was not comprehensive enough, adding that the NCS budget may be rejected “if certain explanations were not provided”.

He went ahead to ask if the report was harmonised with that of the House of Representatives, to which Alimikhena answered in the affirmative.

Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, rounded off the debate by soliciting the cooperation of its colleagues to overlook the lapses in the report and pass the budget so that the senate can proceed with other items listed for the day.