The Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has given the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) a seven-day ultimatum to recover the over N30 trillion collected on behalf of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) but not remitted by commercial banks to CBN.

The Committee Chairman, Senator Hope Uzodinma issued the ultimatum at the investigative meeting with the CBN, Ministry of Finance, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and commercial banks amongst other stakeholders.

He said if CBN should fail to recover the money, the Senate would invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the whereabouts of the money, out of which N536 billion was terminated at the various banks but not remitted to CBN.

“There are various infractions regarding import and export duties and we have carried out detailed investigations into the matter. Today we will address the non-remittance of revenue collected on behalf of customs,” Senator Uzodinma said.

“The only bank that is free of this infraction is Zenith Bank. We must recover what we are able to and moving forward, we must stop this infraction that is affecting our economy negatively,” he added.

He further gave the erring banks two weeks to clarify the infractions relating to utilised and unutilised form Ms and Simple Goods Declaration (SGD) and raised concerns over infractions regarding goods meant for the free trade zones which have flooded the market and are competing with local products.