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| Senator close from meeting |
The revelation was made in the report of the
ad-hoc committee on import duty waivers, concessions and grants chaired by
Senator Adamu Aliero (APC, Kebbi Central).
Delivering the report in yesterday’s plenary;
Aliero said the country lost N78.4bn in 2011, N128.5bn in 2012, N46bn in 2013,
N87.6bn in 2014 and N106.7bn in 2015 to waivers, concessions and grants.
Quoting a document from the Nigeria Customs Service, he said there were large scale revenue leakages between 2011 and 2015.
He said there was gross abuse of import duty
waivers, concessions and grants by implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), especially the Budget Office of the federation. He said his
committee looked into the import duty waivers on rice, sugar automobile and
hospitality sector and discovered a fraud of N65bn.
The Senate in passing resolutions on the report
asked the federal government to recover N24bn from Olam International Limited
(a subsidiary of Stallion Group) and Millan Group for exceeding the quota
system granted them on rice importation.
It also asked the government to recover N10.3bn
from Dangote Limited, Kersuk Farms, Bua Group, Elephant Group and Golden Penny
for violating the rice import quota granted them. The senators also said the
purported transfer of 100,000 metric tons of rice by the Jamatul Nasrul Islam
(JNI) to Elephant Group was illegal, and therefore, the import duty in the sum
of N687m should be recovered.
On Sugar, the Senate said the Bua Sugar
Refinery should pay N31.7bn to the federal government for obtaining waivers
without backward integration programme. Also, the senate said Meditarion
Nigeria Limited should be made to pay the import duty for under invoicing of
2,161,440kg of St. Louis cube sugar as at June, 2014 amounting to N82m.
It also resolved that the Nigeria Customs
Service should henceforth only accept bank indemnity to avoid future loss of
revenue to the government.
The senate urged the federal government to as a matter of urgency restructure and streamline the functions and responsibilities of the Budget Office to prevent further abuses.
The senate urged the federal government to as a matter of urgency restructure and streamline the functions and responsibilities of the Budget Office to prevent further abuses.
In his remarks at the end of the presentation,
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the affected companies must be made
to pay the money.
“This is clearly sabotage on our economy, the money must be recovered and the perpetrators must be dealt with. After three months, we will look at the implementation of our recommendations on this waiver, “he said.
“This is clearly sabotage on our economy, the money must be recovered and the perpetrators must be dealt with. After three months, we will look at the implementation of our recommendations on this waiver, “he said.
Addressing newsmen on the report, the SenateLeader, Ali Ndume, said the money was recoverable and expressed optimism that
the government would swiftly move into action on the funds.
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