TheCable

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, says the federal government (FG) conceded N341.94 billion worth of waivers from August 2017 to August 2019.

Ahmed said that from 2011- 2015, the FG granted N1.024 trillion worth of incentives including import duty waiver, value added tax (VAT) waiver, pioneer status non-oil companies and pioneer status PPT on oil companies.

The finance minister made this known at a sensitisation seminar on the automated import duty exemption certificate (IDEC) in Kano.

Represented by Shehu Na-Allah Kura, Kano state commissioner of finance, Ahmed explained that the new IDEC platform which is line with FG’s strategic revenue growth initiative (SRGI), is an avenue to drive industrialisation, economic growth.

“The scope of such requests are expanding hence the need to have in place modern technology to drive its administration,” she said.

“Up till March 2020, we processed the grant of the IDEC incentives annually. The process was quite cumbersome, tedious, time consumption and it was beset with undue human interface with its attendant challenges.

“The federal government under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is keen on promoting and sustaining transparency and efficiency in delivering services in the public sector domain and the organized private sector.”

Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), represented at the event by Lawrence Banye, commandant of customs training college, Kano, said IDEC would bring about a total automation of all trans-border trade activities of the NCS.