Customs says fuel smuggling has reduced since subsidy removal

The Nigeria Customs Service, Adamawa/Taraba Area Command, said there has been a significant reduction in the smuggling of premium motor spirits, also known as petrol, since the removal of fuel subsidy.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had, during his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, announced that the Federal Government can't afford to continue to pay subsidy on fuel consumption, describing the policy as "a scam."

Tinubu also said the days of the country acting as Father Christmas to her neighbours while Nigerians suffer the negative impact of the fuel subsidy are over.

Since the Presidential pronouncement, unofficial reports claimed that the nation's daily fuel consumption figures, hitherto estimated at 66 to 70 million litres per day, have dropped to around 35 million litres.

Many analysts have attributed the massive drop to a reduction in the smuggling of the product to neighbouring countries, a practice that was rife during the subsidy regime.

Corroborating this claim, the Customs Area Controller in charge of Adamawa/Taraba command, Salisu Abdullahi, said evidence showed that fuel smuggling has reduced.

He stated this over the weekend while briefing journalists on the command’s activities in May.

According to Abdullahi, the command confiscated 14,980 litres of premium motor spirit packed in drums and jerry cans during the period under review.

“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,” he said.

The Area Controller added that during the period under review, the command also 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,” Abdullahi said.

Explaining the reason for the NPK fertilizer seizure, the customs officer said it was due to the restrictions placed on the movement of the product, especially in the Northeastern states.

“It might interest you to ask that now that we are in the farming season, fertiliser will be highly needed by the farmers to improve their farm yield. So, why the apprehension of the fertiliser?

"The NCS is one of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of implementing the Federal Government policy on the movement of fertiliser.

"The apprehension of dry blended NPK fertiliser is predicated on the restriction of movement of the product placed by the National Fertiliser Quality (control) Act, 2019 Section 10, which restricts its movement, especially into the Northeastern states.”