*To probe Chinese firm
*Minister to provide evidence on 600,000 firms
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The House of Representatives yesterday frowned at the indiscriminate issuance and abuse of waivers. It alleged that China Habour, a Chinese company, received waiver worth over N5 billion for the importation of construction materials which are available in the country.
Speaking during the investigative hearing into the audit query issued by the office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (oAuGF) against Nigeria Customs Service (NSC), Chairman, House Committee on Public Account, Hon. Wole Oke expressed concern over breach of various policies and regulations guiding waivers and capital allowances granted to some multinational companies and public quoted companies between 2014 and 2020
The Committee requested the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment to provide evidence of the capital allowance certificates granted to over 600,000 companies and other relevant documents during the period under review.
Oke frowned at the complacency of various regulatory agencies that approved such waivers in breach of due process and financial regulations, leading to huge loss of revenue into the Federation Account.
“Like in the case of China Harbour, which got a contract in Nigeria through contract financing and then you are claiming duty waiver of over N5 billion on items and materials that are available in Nigeria. They are importing them.They kill local industries, you are injuring us from both ends.
”We just have to resolve that the managing director of China Harbour should cause appearance. All they are trying to do is to cover-up. When it comes to capital flight they don’t mind, but when it comes to accountability, they are running away. And those who granted the duty waiver, we must ask them and that’s why we invited the Ministry of Finance to cause appearance to come and defend the duty waiver they gave to you,” Oke said.
He said in its query, the Auditor-General of the Federation expressed concern over the depletion of revenue accruing to the Federation Account and they (oAuGF) asked us why we are not looking at the revenue profile of Customs. They said it should be audited.
“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. So that is what we are doing. In a situation where you are based in Nigeria, import from France and the documents emanate from Mauritius. So, all we want to establish is the goods from the manufacturer, is it the same pricing that is comes with from the manufacturer?”
He alleged that “some multinational companies indulge in the abuse of tax avoidance, transfer service schemes and they use that to undermine revenue generation in Nigeria. So, 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. So by doing, they can even cut down 50% of duty that they ought to have paid to Nigeria.
“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 submitted list of over 600,000 companies, and like I said there is no how we can invite over 600,000 companies, we don’t even have the budget because it will cost us N1.2 billion to write them. So we have to do sampling to conform the fiat in the issues raised by Auditor General.”
He also underscored the need for Standing Committees to have detailed information on the number of Shipping and cargo companies operating in the country, with the view to ascertain the details on importation and revenue due to the Federation.
“The solution is that we should step up our oversight and ensure that nobody is undermining the revenue accruing to this country, either through these schemes I’ve mentioned or fraudulently,” Oke said.
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