Last November, the Federal Ministry of Finance stunned some participants at the public hearing of a bill to repeal the extant Customs and Excise Management Act (2004) when it said government wants to strip the Nigeria Customs Service of its customs duty collection and hand it over to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). Two months later, a move coming from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appears to be a veiled attempt to implement the government proposal.
Barely two months ago (November 2021), the Federal Ministry of Finance moved to strip the Nigeria Customs Service of its primary responsibility of duty revenue collection.
At a one-day public hearing on a Bill for an Act to repeal the Customs and Excise Management Act (2004) and the Nigeria Customs Service (Establishment) Bill, organized by the House Committee on Customs, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, voiced the federal government’s new thinking on Customs duty collection for the country.
Zainab Ahmed told the National Assembly and the participants at the public hearing that the sole responsibility of collecting revenue should be domiciled with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) while the NCS facilitates trade. In other words, the duty revenue collection function of the NCS should be transferred to the FIRS
The CBN had said the e-invoicing guidelines would take effect from February 1, 2022, giving the importers and stakeholders only 11 days to comply. Just as the Ministry of Finance’s witch cry in November sounded outrageous to the ears of many stakeholders, so did the CBN’s new importation guidelines and its implementation time-frame.
Snippets of the guidelines indicate that suppliers and buyers are expected “to transmit their authenticated invoices through the CBN appointed service provider to the Nigeria single-window portal.” There will also no longer be third party involvement in Form-M. According to the apex bank, this is “to ensure prudent use of foreign exchange resources and eliminate incidences of over-invoicing, transfer pricing, double handling charges, and avoidable costs that are ultimately passed to the average Nigerian consumers.”
The Trade and FX restrictions, including the closure of land borders that started in August 2019 increased prices for food and consumer goods, and imports of over 40 goods, including many staple foods that are currently ineligible for FX through formal windows.
In spite of all the observations by experts, local and international institutions concerning Nigeria’s current economic policies, the authorities have adamantly continued do things in most unorthodox manner. According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s high inflation rate is expected to hit the roof in 2022 if no containment measures are taken.
Unfortunately, instead of containment measures, Nigeria’s economy managers are coming up with more economic measures that will further exacerbate inflation, sink the economy further and strangulate the common man. Like the madman, they have continued to do the same thing while expecting a different result.
