The Federal Government says it lost N4.6 trillion from waivers granted to importers in 2017 and 2018.
The loss came as a result of the ministry not implementing the Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) project.
To plug this drain, the Federal Ministry of Finance wrote to the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) for assistance, and on Thursday, the ICRC issued the Full Business Case Certificate of Compliance for the Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) waiver, to the federal ministry of finance to check further loss of revenue from import waivers.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media and Communications, Mr Paul Ella Abechi, the Minister of Finance Mrs. Zainab Ahmed while commending the Director General of ICRC for expediting action on the project, urged the Ministry staff to “take full advantage of the IDEC portal and put it into full use to enable the Federal Government get full value for its revenues.”
The Full Business Case Compliance Certificate is for the Development, Deployment and Management of Automated Customs Gateway Portal for Import Duty Exemption Certificate under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with Forecore Technology Solution Limited, as the preferred partner to Develop, Deploy, Manage and Transfer for a 10-year concession period.
Zainab Ahmed lamented that government has “been experiencing significant drain in revenues due to the inability to adequately control the IDEC processes. It is really a good time for me that this project that I was really particular about since I came is coming to operation.”
While calling for the full implementation of the project, she noted that “the Ministry of Finance will have to get the approval of the Federal Executive Council before the Public Private Partnership (PPP) of the project will take full course.”
The Minister added that, “the portal will help us control, track and monitor the IDEC that we issue, but also to monitor the performance of the companies that we give this IDEC to and we will also be able to interface the IDEC system with the Nigeria Customs Service.”
Director-General of ICRC, Engr Chidi Izuwah noted that IDEC project is a very laudable one, which is considered to be of great and urgent importance to enable the country cut the huge revenue loses to the tune of over N2 trillion due to manual processes.
He said: “The statement in the minister’s 12th June, 2018 letter that the non-implementation of this project caused a revenue loss of N2.5 trillion in 2017 and N2.1 trillion in 2018, we considered this a national revenue emergency and we gave it the needed attention and turned it around very quickly.”
Izuwah further noted that the Federal Ministry of Finance under Section 12 of the ICRC Act is required to diligently supervise this project and ensue that government realises full value, the interest of government protected and it reap the full benefits of the project.