Senate urges FG to stop waivers on rice importation

‎The senate has urged the federal government to stop all waivers on rice importation, and other agricultural products.

‎The senate also asked the government to mandate the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service to recover all duty due to the government.

‎It noted that the government had a policy to encourage agriculture, and agriculture business as a deliberate policy to diversify the economy, but observed that the policy had become significantly eroded and gradually rendered useless by the indiscriminate granting of waivers, concessions and grants, especially on rice importation.

The senate also observed that the abuse of the waiver scheme had severely eroded the government’s rice production policy by importing huge quantities of the commodity in excess of the approved‎ quota.

It lamented that the government “loses annually N71 billion on duty waivers, especially to importers of rice, palm oil, energy equipment, steel and vegetable oil,” and observed that “in 2011, the government gave import waivers to 10 rice and palm oil importing companies alone, amounting to N150 billion.”

In a motion moved by Adebayo Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara south), the senate also noted that “the tax incentives offered to encourage foreign direct investments (FDI) into the country were now doing more harm than good to the economy, as funds which could have been invested in public schools, hospitals, roads and other social infrastructure are lost mindlessly without consequences.”

It, therefore, asked the government to stop waivers on all agricultural products forthwith.

To ensure that due diligence was done to the matter, Bukola Saraki, senate president, set up an ad hoc committee to look into all waivers and grants and to carry out holistic review to determine the full recovery of all government revenues.

Chairman of the committee is Adamu Ailero while some members are Sam Egwu, Stella Oduah and Taiwo Alasoadura.