An Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives has asked relevant government agencies to provide all necessary documents on pre-shipment inspection of exports and the non-remittance of crude oil proceeds.
The agencies include the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture.
The Chairman of the committee, Rep. Seyi Sowunmi, LP-Lagos, gave the directive at a public hearing in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said that the documents already submitted were not up-to-date, saying that the committee needed to be updated before the next date of appearance.
The lawmaker said that the investigation was crucial as it seeks to address some of the issues making the country lose the needed revenues through leakages.
“Part of the problems President Bola Tinubu is trying to solve is revenue leakage; we should account for every naira that accrues to the nation. And that is what this committee seeks to achieve,” he said.
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He said that all relevant agencies will be informed of the dates to appear before the committee and of when to submit the requested comprehensive documents.
In his remarks, the Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service, Mr. Bashir Adeniyi, explained the role of the service in line with its establishment Act and other extant laws of the country.
Represented by the Deputy Comptroller General, Mrs. Caroline Diagwan, Adeniyi said that the service only ensures documents tally at the point of exports, saying that collection of duties is outside the purview of the agency.
“We make sure that those documents tally with what has been exported at the point of export. So we do examination as well as physicalisation of food.
“That is the role we play, we make sure that what is being exported tallies with the documents sent to us by the Central Bank of Nigeria and NXP Semiconductors and then the export permit from Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
“We are there at the point of inspection. After inspection, that’s when they do the exportation. Customs are there with other government agencies.
“We do not collect export duties, actually. And we do not really know how much money they are paying to the government, because that is not our purview,” he said.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Yemi Cardoso, said that the apex bank acts as the rallying point of the activities of the other agencies through platforms that process the data and information.
Represented by a Director of the apex bank, Dr. Musa Nakurji, Cardoso said that the Act of 1992 of the CBN saddled the agency with the responsibility of the administrative side of pre-shipment inspection.
He said that the pre-inspection Act does not give the apex bank powers to appoint the pre-inspection agent.
On his part, the Managing Director, Nigerian Port Authority, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho explained that the authority appoints agents that are stationed at export terminals that relay all the information to the agency.
Represented by the General Manager of Tariff, Mr. Ibrahim Lookman Dantsoho said that the NPA works hand-in-hand with the other government agencies as provided by law, and it has a defined jurisdictional role in what it does at the export terminals.
In his submission, a Director with The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, Dr. Emmanuel Akeh, explained that the organisation is the umbrella body of chambers of commerce in the country.
He said that though the organisation does not have any role in crude oil exports, it only issues certificates of origin, which are trade documents for non-oil exports, to certify their originality and authenticate the products going out of the country.
NAN
