The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has collected N312,603,256,366.88 in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, it was learnt on Tuesday.
According to a document obtained by The Nation from the Customs Headquarters, Abuja, the Service recorded N109,859905476.33 revenue collection in March, which was an increase of N24,909,011,808.96 over the N84,950,893,667.37 collected in the previous month. It represented 29.32 per cent rise in the period under revenue.
The document noted that in March, the NCS collected N52908321928.00 from import duty, N12,630,225,488.33 from Excise Duty and N3,714,037,520.00 Customs External Tariff (CET).
It also added that the Service recorded a collection of N243,561,760.00 fees, and Value Added Tax (VAT) of N19,345,600,719.00. The fund accruable to the Federation Account, according to the document, was N69,496,146,969.33, while N21,081,158,061.00 was not Federation Account.
The collection was higher than the revenue of March last year that was N87.58 billion, an indication of N22.27billion rise over the record of the corresponding period last year.
In February this year, the collection had dipped by N32,778,563,555.81, representing 27.8 per cent decrease in the period under review.
The decline might not be unconnected with the shortness of the month and the work-free days as a result of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
A document titled: Revenue Collected 01/02/2019-28/02/2019, showed that five per cent of the VAT of the total collection was N16,499,687,718.00.
A breakdown of the collection showed that the NCS collected N45,208,094,544.00 Import Duty, while Excise Duty was N1,319,955,637.00 and CET levy was N4,847,840,441.00.
The document also noted that Fees were N40,370,843.00, Collections due for Federation Account was N51,987,461,561.37, B.VAT N16,499,687,718.00 while N16,463,744,388.00 was non Federation Account revenue.
In February last year, the NCS collected N79.26 billion, which indicated a corresponding increase of N5.64billion, representing an increase of 7.11 per cent.
It also generated N94.3billion in April, N100.5 billion in May, N98.4 billion in June, N94.9 billion in July and N140.4 billion in August.
