House Queries N5bn Import Duty Waiver to Chinese Firm
CUSTOMS CG
The House of Representatives Committee has raised concerns over a N5bn waiver granted a Chinese company, China Harbour, over importation of materials for construction.
Chairman of the Committee, Wole Oke, was reacting to the waiver during an investigative hearing following an audit query against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Oke said it was wrong to have granted such waiver considering that Nigeria has multi-billion dollar loans to pay back to China.
He said the approval of the loan was a breach of due process and extant financial regulations, adding that this was what has been causing huge loss of revenue for the country.
Following the observation, the House Committee directed the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, to make available to the House evidence of capital allowance certificates granted to 600,000 companies between 2014 and 2020.
According to Oke, the auditor-general had in his query raised concerns over depletion of revenue accruing into the federation account.
Oke presented the query from the Auditor-general, “And they (OAuGF) asked us why we not filing the revenue profile of Customs. They said it should be audited. That is what they said. And so, we called Customs and Customs came and presented the list.
“There are a lot of things like tax avoidance. Tax avoidance is lawful but we are only checking the abuses. That is what we are doing. In a situation where you are based in Nigeria, import from France for example and the documents emanate from Mauritius.”
He continued, “Some multinational companies indulge in the abuse of tax avoidance and transfer service schemes, and they use that to undermine revenue generation in Nigeria. Some of these companies float subsidiaries in tax haven countries and some of these companies are 100 per cent owned by them; so, they operate through their subsidiaries
“The prices at which they buy from the manufacturers are not what is contained in the shipping documents. By so doing, they can even cut down 50 per cent of duty that they ought to have paid to Nigeria.
“That is the issue the auditor-general is raising; that collections by Nigeria Customs (Service), collections by FIRS (Federal Inland Revenue Service), remittance by DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources) and NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) is nose-diving and that we should check it.
“They are even particular about Customs, that we should audit it and that is why we invited Nigeria Customs; and Nigeria Customs availed us – in response to the committee’s invitation – a list of over 600,000 companies.
“There is no how we can invite over 600,000 companies; we don’t even have the budget because it will cost us N1.2bn to write them. So, we have to do sampling to conform to the fiat in the issues raised by auditor-general.”
Oke lamented the level of impunity of some MDAs, adding that there was the need to carry out more oversight mandates to block revenue leakages.
Chairman of the Committee, Wole Oke, was reacting to the waiver during an investigative hearing following an audit query against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Oke said it was wrong to have granted such waiver considering that Nigeria has multi-billion dollar loans to pay back to China.
He said the approval of the loan was a breach of due process and extant financial regulations, adding that this was what has been causing huge loss of revenue for the country.
Following the observation, the House Committee directed the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Niyi Adebayo, to make available to the House evidence of capital allowance certificates granted to 600,000 companies between 2014 and 2020.
According to Oke, the auditor-general had in his query raised concerns over depletion of revenue accruing into the federation account.
Oke presented the query from the Auditor-general, “And they (OAuGF) asked us why we not filing the revenue profile of Customs. They said it should be audited. That is what they said. And so, we called Customs and Customs came and presented the list.
“There are a lot of things like tax avoidance. Tax avoidance is lawful but we are only checking the abuses. That is what we are doing. In a situation where you are based in Nigeria, import from France for example and the documents emanate from Mauritius.”
He continued, “Some multinational companies indulge in the abuse of tax avoidance and transfer service schemes, and they use that to undermine revenue generation in Nigeria. Some of these companies float subsidiaries in tax haven countries and some of these companies are 100 per cent owned by them; so, they operate through their subsidiaries
“The prices at which they buy from the manufacturers are not what is contained in the shipping documents. By so doing, they can even cut down 50 per cent of duty that they ought to have paid to Nigeria.
“That is the issue the auditor-general is raising; that collections by Nigeria Customs (Service), collections by FIRS (Federal Inland Revenue Service), remittance by DPR (Department of Petroleum Resources) and NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) is nose-diving and that we should check it.
“They are even particular about Customs, that we should audit it and that is why we invited Nigeria Customs; and Nigeria Customs availed us – in response to the committee’s invitation – a list of over 600,000 companies.
“There is no how we can invite over 600,000 companies; we don’t even have the budget because it will cost us N1.2bn to write them. So, we have to do sampling to conform to the fiat in the issues raised by auditor-general.”
Oke lamented the level of impunity of some MDAs, adding that there was the need to carry out more oversight mandates to block revenue leakages.
FOLLOW US
About Post Author
