Import Duty Tax Exemptions Now Attract N60,000

The Federal Government of Nigeria had said import duty tax will attract the sum of N60,000 henceforth.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed made this known after announcing the development of the Portal for Import Duty Exemptions and added applicants for the tax exemptions would pay a fee of N60,000″.

“Today, the Ministry of Finance sought the approval on a project which is designed to manage an automated gate way platform for the issuance of import duty exemption certificates as well as vehicle identification and registration number”.

“The federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning is responsible for the management of the country’s national finance and one of our responsibilities is implementing fiscal incentives that are used to attract investors to promote non-oil exports as well as encourage industrialization programme and stimulate growth in the economy, “she said.

She explained further that what the Ministry does is to handle applications for exemptions that come to the ministry”.

“Some of the exemptions cover a number of sectors including the downstream gas utilization projects, the Agro-Allied processing projects and aviation (commercial aircraft engines), “she said.

Ahmed also pointed out that other exemptions are spare parts, automobile assembly, iron and steel production, power including; thermal hydro, solar and wind, textile plants, machinery and equipment that are imported for use for mining operations.

According to her; “in the process of these exemptions, a couple of years, we realized that government was actually ceding quite a significant amount of revenue through this process”.

“Because the process was largely paper-based, we got approval today to automate this process, to enhance efficiency, to block possible leakage and also to reduce the amount of time that the ministry takes to review this exemption request and provide the necessary approvals”.

“This portal will be managed by both the ministry as well as the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The vehicle identification number will be available to any user to access to find out information on vehicles”.

She stressed further that through the IDE component, the government will be able to see how much waivers have been granted to which sectors and also track the performers of those waivers and reduce the cost subsequently.

She, however, added the portal will be developed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

” The portal is undertaking in the form of a PPP between the ministry of finance and Messrs Fore-core Technology Solutions limited. They are to develop, deploy, manage and transfer back to the ministry”.

” They are to be earning revenue which is coming from the IDE application fee. We are going to share the revenue in the promotion of 90 percent to the government and 10 percent to Messrs Fore-core Technology Solutions Limited”.

” They are earning this 10 percent to enable recover the cost of deployment as well as the management because they will also be the ones managing the project over this 10-year period.”