The Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has criticized the proposed amendment of the bill which seeks to modernize and consolidate the laws governing the Nigerian Customs Service. The bill seeks to repeal the Customs and Excise
Management Act of 2004 and enact the
Nigeria Customs Service Act. According to the Minister, the proposed bill
would affect the powers of the Finance
Minister and the President in ensuring the
economic well-being of the country. Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, who appeared before
the Senate Committee on Finance in Abuja,
said: “We do not consider this a good bill at
the moment, in terms of the economic
development of the country and we think that
it would need significant amendments of some sections. “With the present bill, the policy making
powers from the executive powers are all
vested largely in the customs and are not
separate. “We believe that the bill should separate
policy making powers and executing powers,
so that they can be properly aligned. “Many of the powers of the president that
are granted in the former bill have now been
rescinded,” she said. However other people present at the hearing
were of the view that the proposed bill would
help the custom service carry out its function
as a major source of revenue for the country
and that the proposed bill is long overdue. The chairman of the Senate Committee on
Finance, Ahmed Markarfi, said this is one key
issue the public hearing seeks to address. He promised that the Senate will look at the
bill and come up with a bill they believe is in the
best interest of the country. The Senate President, David Mark, who was
represented at the hearing by the Senate
majority leader, Victor Ndoma-Egbe, said the
amendment of the Customs Management Act
was long overdue. He said: “the seventh senate is making history
by reforming the Nigeria Customs Service by
repealing existing laws to bring it in
conformity with international laws.
www.channelstv.com/home/2012/11/05/proposed-customs-bill-will-reduce-the-presidents-and-my-powers-okonjo-iweala-tells-senators/

Let the Senate and the National Assembly commence 2nd Reading for the extremely important PIB bill that has been with them for over 3months. The bill need urgent passage before the end of this year.

@topic, dont know much about this new Custom's bill so cant honestly comment on it. Any link to a copy of the bill?