The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) collected a total of N1,755,386,486,390.02 between January and last month, it was learnt at the weekend.
The service, it was gathered, also collected Iits highest monthly revenue of N241,903,781,854.46 in August.
The collection is coming at a time the Federal Government is craving for more revenue based on the dwindling revenue from oil sector.
According to a cumulative table of monthly revenue collections by the NCS, the service collected a total of N1,755,386,486,390.02 from January to August.
The cumulative collection is N363,436,321,614.95 and higher than N 1,391,950,164,775.97 collected from January to August 2021.
The Federal Government’s focus on non-oil revenue sources has increased in recent times leading to higher expectations from organisations like the Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS), Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and other revenue-collecting bodies.
The country plans bto orrow N11trillion to fund tnext year’s budget in addition to selling some national assets
Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who made this known, also said the government’s budget deficit is expected to exceed N12.42 trillion if it should keep petroleum subsidy for the 2023 fiscal cycle.
Ahmed had disclosed this while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance to defend the 2023-2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Explaining two scenarios of the budget deficit to the committee, the minister said the first option involves retaining the petroleum subsidy for the entire fiscal year.
According to her, in the first scenario, the deficit is projected to be N12.41 trillion, up from N7.35 trillion budgeted for 2022, representing 196 per cent of total revenue or 5.50 per cent of the estimated GDP. In this option, she added, the government would spend N6.72 trillion on subsidy.
