POLITICAL Economy

Senate Clears Customs Of N62.2bn Under Remittance Query

by admin on | 2026-06-17 11:55:31

Share: Facebook | Twitter | Whatsapp | Linkedin Visits: 2

---

Senate Clears Customs Of N62.2bn Under Remittance Query

By Ahmad sirajo Makama

The Nigerian Senate, through its Public Accounts Committee (SPAC), has officially dismissed the query of N62.2 billion regarding underremittance that was levied against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation in the audit report for 2019.

The committee conducted an investigative session addressing all 77 inquiries about financial infractions identified in the audit reports for Customs for the years 2019 and 2020, in discussions with the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi. 

Additionally, the committee has resolved to establish a smaller subgroup to facilitate the reconciliation of the remaining 76 inquiries.

The Customs Authority successfully navigated the investigative session, as the representative of the Auditor General of the Federation provided compelling responses to inquiries one, two, and three, which were presented to the Comptroller General.

The representative of the Auditor General, as directed by the Chairman of the committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe North), reported that in the fiscal year 2017, the total revenue collected by the Customs amounted to N691.242 billion. Of this total, N629.23 billion was remitted, resulting in an unremitted balance of N62.2 billion that has not been deposited into the Federation Account.

In his response to the query, the Customs CG said the N62.2 billion classified as unremitted or underremitted in the 2019 audit report was the total sum of levies collected by Customs on behalf of other agencies, which are not meant for remittance into the Federation Account.

“The under remittance of N62.2 billion levelled against Customs in the 2019 audit report was wrongly arrived at through misclassification of levies collected.

“While most of the levies are to be collected and remitted into the Federation Account, others like the ones on local production of wheat, textiles and wines etc, do not go into the Federation Account, the totality of which accounted for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion,” he said.

Similar explanations were offered by the Customs CG on queries two and three, prompting a member of the committee, Senator Babangida Hussaini (Jigawa North West), to question why Customs allowed the queries to reach the stage of committee investigation.

“I was in the civil service just like the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo (Gombe North), before venturing into politics. Queries one, two and three that you have responded to were supposed to have been trashed out at reconciliation level with the auditors and not allowed to get to this stage,” he said.

The Customs boss, however, reminded committee members that the years under review were a period when the Senate and Customs had a frosty relationship.

On the strength of his explanation, the committee resolved to set up a small committee to meet with Customs for the reconciliation of issues raised in the remaining 74 queries.