FG gives vessel owners three months to clear 10-year tax debt

The federal government says it has granted shipowners operating on its waterways a three-month window to pay off their outstanding taxes.

Briefing journalists after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu on Monday, Zachaeus Adedeji, special adviser to the president on revenue, said the payments, running into millions of dollars, were due from 2010 to 2019.

He said vessel owners would be barred from operating in the country’s ports if they fail to comply with the government’s directive.

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) had made demands to several companies for unpaid taxes from 2010 to 2019.

The claims for each vessel range from $400,000 to $1.1 million, with the total sum demanded reaching millions of dollars, according to a bloomberg report.

Giving updates on the federal government’s recovery efforts, Adedeji said the issue had been resolved.

“We have now resolved within ourselves to settle this issue as quickly as possible, just to make sure that we don’t affect the flow of the products in and outside the country,” the special adviser said.

“We also made it clear that Nigeria will not accept any blackmail by defaulters, who are not complying with our laws. We have laws and they must be respected and obeyed.

“However, we will not detain or arrest any defaulting ship or vessel because this is what is causing panic.

“We have sent them a demand notice and then they have also come and the agreement is that we should give them time. So, we have agreed to set up the technical committee to resolve these issues.”

Additionally, Adedeji said an interactive session was held with key stakeholders — oil and gas regulators, the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, FIRS, as well as the presidency — and they have all agreed to resolve the issue.

“There was demand notice, which was issued to the vessel owners or chattered, as it were, which is in accordance with the Nigerian tax law, that they should remit the tax deal to them, for the last ten years and that there were concerns about the timing of compliance or afraid of the enforcement,” he said.

“The technical committee will comprise of the regulator, which is NUPRC, NMPDRA, NNPC, FIRS, and the presidency, in the office of the chief of staff, special adviser energy, and special adviser revenue and the secretariat is at the federal inland revenue.”

Adedeji said the technical committee will also look at the concerns and reconcile the backlog of taxes, setting a process that will ensure compliance going forward.