The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has attributed its inability to meet its projected national revenue targets to the extensive issuance of import duty waivers, which have cost the federation an estimated ₦3.4 trillion.

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance, led by Senator Sani Musa, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, explained that while the service has made aggressive efforts to ramp up revenue collection, the sheer volume of Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) granted to corporate bodies and various organizations significantly depleted their potential yields.

He noted that these fiscal concessions, while designed to stimulate economic growth and support local industries, have inadvertently created massive revenue gaps.

Adeniyi emphasized that the Customs Service remains a trade-facilitating and revenue-collecting agency that operates strictly within the policy frameworks and exemptions approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance. He pointed out that while Customs enforces the collection of duties, they cannot override legally issued government waivers.

The Senate Committee on Finance expressed serious concerns over the economic impact of such colossal concessions, stressing that the unchecked granting of waivers represents a severe drain on the country’s scarce resources. The committee reiterated its commitment to reviewing the waiver process and checking the activities of defaulting Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to block further fiscal leakages.