By Emeka Nze
Abuja
The Nigerian Custom service (NCS ) has said that not less than 46 officers were killed by smugglers in 2013, even as the agency seized rice from smugglers valued at N1.35 billion within the same period.
The Comptroller General of customs, Inde Abdullahi Dikko said this yesterday in Abuja while making a presentation to the National Conference Committee on Finance. He said smuggling activities have risen to an unprecedented level due to the desperation of Nigerians to bring in the heavily taxed imported rice for the purpose of making profit.
Dikko said: “There is need to make our taxes on rice more reasonable so that there would be no need to smuggle. Because when taxes are high, people would want to evade it…but when they are reasonable, compliance level would be high and the income would increase.”
He said last year, with more than 200,000 trailer loads of rice seized by the service valued at N1.35 billion, it implies a huge revenue loss for the nation as these foreign rice is imported by countries bordering Nigeria, through which it is smuggled into Nigeria. And the porous nature of the country’s borders contributes to the challenge of controlling the influx of these goods or tracking them to collect the necessary tariffs required, he said.
As if to corroborate this, the Chairman of the Committee, Adamu Aliero said as a farmer, he is aware that indigenous farmers and millers of rice cannot satisfy the local demand in Nigeria, so relieving the heavy burden of taxation on rice would be better for the economy.
