Contrary to popular belief that the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, will lead to the stoppage of smuggling of the product to neighbouring countries, revelations by the Nigeria Customs Service has stated otherwise.
This revelation was made by the Adamawa/Taraba Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service over the weekend.
According to the Commamd, the subsidy removal has not stopped the Smuggling of the product, but has only led to a significant reduction in the smuggling.
In a statement, the Customs Area Controller in charge of the command, Salisu Abdullahi, stated this while briefing journalists on the command’s activities in May.
He said that during the period under review, the command confiscated 14,980 litres of premium motor spirit packed in drums and jerry cans.
“The seized petrol is going to be auctioned instantly after this briefing. However, due to the inflammable nature of premium motor spirit, most of it had been disposed of in line with the standard operating procedure and the accrued proceeds remitted into the Federation Account. It is evident that the smuggling of PMS has reduced drastically owing to the removal of the subsidy and the product is available in all filling stations.”
Abdullahi added that during the period under review, the command recorded 16 seizures of different contraband.
“Other contraband seized included: 494×50kg bags of dry blended NPK fertiliser, three vehicles namely: Toyota Starlet and two Toyota Corollas, used for conveying foreign parboiled rice, 90x50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice and 960 pieces of foreign soaps. The total duty paid value of the seizures stands at NN22.9m,” the area controller said.
He explained that the NPK fertiliser was seized because of the restrictions placed on the movement of the product, especially in the Northeastern states.
