League Cautions Tinubu Administration Against Merger of FIRS, Customs, NIMASA

·        Points out massive  job losses

·       Argues merger should be for agencies not doing well

The League of Maritime Editors (LOME) on has advised the administration of  President Ahmed Bola Tinubu against the proposal to merge  the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) as one single agency to be known as  the Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS).

By Ovie Edomi

The League of Maritime Editors, an assemblage of very senior Journalists whose individual practice spans over three decades  described such proposal   as  ill-conceived and  misleading to the administration of Tinubu  as such the proposal should not be allowed to see the light of the day.

Describing the proposal as anti-people, the  association added that    those behind the idea failed to consider the obvious  dire consequences associated with merger which include  mass sack of employees in all the agencies involved.

In a statement signed  by the  President of the League, Chief Timothy Okorocha, Secretary, Mr Felix Kumuyi and   the Public Relations Officer, Mr Francis Ugwoke,  the League argued that  the Customs Service and NIMASA have different statutory roles to play as established by laws setting them up.

The statement pointed out  that  Customs  is specifically for trade facilitation at different seaports, airports and border stations  from where it collects duties on  goods entering  the country or being exported.

According to the statement, the only statutory obligation being performed by the Customs which is close to that of the FIRS  is excise duty collection as tax, adding  that this should    not been be seen as enough to call for merger.

In the case of  NIMASA, the statement said  the agency  was set up to regulate  the maritime sector in terms of ships coming  from different destinations and those operating locally  and  using her territorial waters.

Beyond this role, the statement said, NIMASA is known for  “indigenous shipping development, maritime safety administration; maritime labour regulation; marine pollution prevention and control; search and rescue; provision of direction and ensuring compliance with vessels security measures; air and coastal surveillance;   Cabotage enforcement; ship registration; training and certification of seafarers and marine capacity development”.

According to League, there is no role in what NIMASA carries out  that is so closely related with FIRS and  Customs to  call for the merger of the three  agencies.

 Perhaps, the only area connecting them is the collection of the three percent levy from vessels calling at the nation’s ports to be able to carry out administrative purposes and promote indigenous shipping  development.

Besides, both NIMASA and Customs are key contributors to the consolidated revenue fund just like FIRS, the statement said.

Customs like FIRS which recorded N10.1trillion last year  had   also recorded N2.7 trillion in 2022 while withholding only 5 percent allowed by law to carry out its statutory functions.

NIMASA had also   contributed the sum of N37.69 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) in 2021, N31.83bn in 2020  and has been doing so over the years.

The statement added, “the present administration should not consider introducing any policy that will inflict pains on already traumatized Nigerians considering that many thousands of youths graduate every year  without   hope of where to gain employment. Merging these three agencies will lead to more sack and reduction in  employment opportunities for Nigerian youths in these agencies. Government should look for other ways of checking capital expenditure in these agencies and save money  but certainly not to merge them.

“Right now, Customs has a staff strength of about 16,000 personnel, FIRS has  about 12,000 workers  while NIMASA has  about 2,000 workers and should government merge the agencies,  the strength of the agencies to be  known as  ‘Nigerian Revenue Service’ (NRS) will go down by more than half. It will be survival of the fittest. Only those who are connected to the Presidency,    governors, senators  and high level monarchs will remain. This is not good for the  economy. It will not even be good for the image of the  administration”.

The League advised that merger should be for agencies not doing well and not five-star agencies.