​Although 2022 started off as a challenging one for the Customs Division, the department still managed to realize some growth.

At the start of the year, the country was still reeling from the severe economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and according to the Comptroller of Customs, Raju Boddu.

He says the first nine months of 2022 “it was very rough” but during those same nine months, Customs registered “about 11.7” percent growth over 2021 figures.

“Last year for the first 11 months the total revenue was about 301 million but at the end of November 2022, the total revenue now stands at 336 million which means we have made about 35 million more. “This is despite the fact that we have taken a serious hit on oil revenues,” the Customs head told state media while attributed attributing in revenue to the boom in the housing/building sector,” he said

During these circumstances God has been kind to all of us, we have navigated. The building materials and other economic activity has really picked up, food items [basically] remain the same, but the real imputes has come from the other activities,” he noted.

Boddu concluded by describing 2022 as a “very satisfying year in terms of recovery when compared to 2019.”

In 2019, Customs made approximately $390 million and with the current and estimated figures, he was certain that this year could be just as good as 2019.