By UCHE USIM, Abuja

The Nigeria Customs Service NCS on Thursday disclosed that 58 private jet owners have come forward to have their airplanes verified in line with its new directive on ascertaining their status.

The Service also generated N1,003,752,951,735 in the first six months of this year.

The Public Relations Officer of the NCS, Joseph Attah made the disclosures in Abuja at a media briefing.

He said that the Customs management has extended the private jet verification deadline to July 20, 2021.

On the revenue, he said that the N1,003,752,951,735 was far higher than N713,548,395,834 generated within the same period last year by N290,204,555,900.

According to him, hitting the trillion naira mark within six months was unprecedented in the Service. “This feat is as a result of resolute pursuit of what is right and willingness to adapt to changes brought about by global health challenges occasioned by COVID-19."

On seizures, Attah noted that the Service between January to June 2021 effected 2,333 assorted seizures with duty paid value of N4,422,548,980.

Some of these seizures include dangerous items like arms and ammunition, illicit drugs and food items like rice, vegetable oil etc, that could have had grave consequences on national security and economy.

On the private jets verification, the Customs spokesman said that infractions discovered during the verification exercise so far include;

breach of Temporary Importation agreement, non-appropriate payment of duty and taxes.

Attah added that those in default have indicated interest to pay, adding that some are already commencing the process by making appropriate declarations.

“By the end of this extended period, the Service will not hesitate to invoke appropriate sanctions as contained in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) Cap C45 LFN 2004 as amended against any private aircraft owner that fails to take advantage of this period to verify his or her aircraft.

“We can’t say how much we will realise at the end of the day. There is this initial resistance by some owners. Some days to the first expiration period, the level of compliance increased. This willingness to comply is encouraging. Some said they will pay up and so we had to extend”, he explained. (Daily Sun)

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