The proposed tax reform measures, according to Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) comptroller-general (CG) Bashir Adeniyi, are in jurisdictional conflict with the NCS and constitute a threat to the agency’s continued existence.
At a public hearing held by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on Wednesday, Adeniyi outlined the main points of objections in a 17-page report that the Customs Service had presented.
According to the NCS boss, Sections 23, 29 and 41(a) of the joint revenue board bill present jurisdictional conflicts.
The Nigerian Customs Act of 2023 may be superseded, he added, by Section 1 of the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) Establishment Bill 2024.
“Basically, these are jurisdictional conflict issues,” Adeniyi said.
“In the Nigeria Revenue Service Established Bill, Section 1 seeks to completely legislate Nigeria Customs Service out of existence, if you pardon my words.”
“Also in Section 4, this is also another omnibus provision. This provision gives the proposed NRS oversight functions of overall taxes and levies.
“We are worried that this new law is seeking to override all previous laws that were done to address issues regarding the economy”.
Adeniyi called for collaboration and operational integration between the customs and tax authorities, rather than the abolition of the agency or the repeal of an existing law to introduce a new one.
“The principal recommendation we made was that we should encourage collaboration, integration of operations between customs and the tax authority, not to abolish customs, or not to repeal the law, because we want to do another law,” he said.
READ ALSO: Historic Lift-Off: First Made-in-Nigeria Helicopter Set to Fly Soon – NASENI
In an appeal to lawmakers to enforce the Nigeria Customs Service Act of 2023, which was passed less than two years ago, the NCS boss pointed out that a great deal of time and money went into its creation.
On October 3, 2024, President Bola Tinubu asked the national assembly to consider and pass four tax reform bills.
The proposed legislation includes the Nigeria tax bill, tax administration bill, and the joint revenue board establishment bill.
