This Day (Lagos)
24 August 2007
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has directed that the issuance of waivers, exemptions from taxes, duties and tariffs to individuals, companies or organisations, be suspended with effect from yesterday. The Federal Government also said it would submit the draft 2008 Budget to the National Assembly by October 8, 2007 and came out with a new approach to fast track the budget process. Also yesterday, the Finance Minister, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, and his junior colleague at the ministry, Mr. Remi Babalola, made their asset declarations public, blazing the trail for the other ministers. Speaking at a Ministerial Press Briefing tagged "The New Road Map to Economic Reforms", Usman said the suspension became necessary to plug a number of revenue leakages through which corruption was perpetrated in the last three years. Noting that the amount of waivers given so far was alarming, he pointed out that "the Comptroller-General of Customs told us that one particular waiver was granted ten times over." He added that "a lot of state governments, private sector operators and churches were being granted indiscriminately. Somebody was organising a game and was asking for waivers to import 600 cars." THISDAY gathered that about N235billion that should have accrued to the Federal Government was lost to duty waivers alone in the last five years. According to information from the Ministry of Finance, the losses from waivers and exemptions from import duty, Ecowas Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS), Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates (NDCC), Manufacturing-In-Bond-Scheme and special incentive granted to importers and exporters. About N194.3 billion was lost between 2003 and 2006 with additional N40 billion granted as duty waivers between January and August 2007 A breakdown revealed that, the Federal Government lost N12.394 billion to duty waivers and concessions in 2003, N55.796 billion in 2004, N71.244billion in 2005, and N54.921 in 2006. Going forward, he said, the Yar'Adua has approved the appointment of accounting firms to audit all the existing waivers and exemptions with a view to ascertain their validity and the level of compliance with the rules guiding the granting of such waivers. He urged all beneficiaries of the waivers and exemptions to respond promptly to the call by the appointed accounting firms, when the public announcement is made soon. Efforts, he added, would also be made to improve tax collections. Stressing that "there will be continued reform of the Nigerian tax system in order to ensure that it is at par with the best in the world," Usman said "a number of specific and general reform measures will be adopted. Efforts will continue also, to get the National Assembly to encapsulate such reforms by reviewing existing legislation or enacting new ones, where such legislation is not existent." He further stated that steps were being taken also to improve the coordination between the FIRS and the relevant Departments of the Ministry, especially the Revenue and Fiscal Departments. "This will help to avoid the seeming confusion where one arm of the Ministry is taking some fundamental action that has great potential to embarrass, not only the Ministry alone but the Federal Government as a whole, without the other arm even knowing about it. Such recent, uncoordinated actions include the increase in the VAT, from 5% to 10%, which had to be reversed, and the frequent waivers and tax exemptions being granted, of which we say more below," he said. Other important strategic issues, according to him, included, "the need for a central agency for tax collection; improving the structure and administration of the property tax in Nigeria; review of the VAT, in line with Ecowas protocols and the need for an overall, simpler tax structure for Nigeria." Also, Usman said the NCS would receive great attention, in order to reform it for greater efficiency and accountability, assuring that, the reform agenda currently being pursued by the NCS will be reviewed and overhauled. In addition, Usman stated that another critical area that required urgent attention was the submission of both 2007 Revised Budget and the proposed 2008 Budget to the National assembly Recalling that the 2007 Budget had to be reviewed mainly because of the implementation of the consolidated salary structure by the executive by the Executive, the Judiciary and the legislature. He said two bills namely the 2007 Budget Amendment Bill and 2007 Supplementary Appropriation Bill, have been forwarded by Yar'Adua for consideration and approval by the National Assembly. The finance minister added, as these were being submitted, work on the 2008 Federal Government Budget was at an advanced stage. This, he said, was in spite of the fact that the work on the budget started five months behind that of the 2007 Budget, "due to the change of administration and the late appointment of ministers."
No comments:
Post a Comment