The House of Representatives has directed the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to produce a detailed report on the exact amount of money Nigeria lost to import duty waivers between 2011 and 2013.
She was also mandated to provide the full names of the beneficiaries; what the waivers were used to import; and the justification for granting such duty exemptions.
The directive was contained in the 50 questions on ‘state of the economy’, which the House Committee on Finance handed over to the Coordinating Minister of the Economy during a session with the committee in Abuja on Thursday last week.
The details of the questions, showed that the committee was worried over the Federal Government’s commitment towards the anti-corruption war and the dwindling non-oil revenues as a result of the duty waivers approved by the minister.
The question on waivers was number 15 on the list, where the committee asked, “How much exactly has been the amount of money lost in government revenue as a result of import duty waivers in 2011, 2012 and 2013?
“In your opinion as the Minister of Finance, who oversees the economy, what are the implications to the country’s economy? What efforts have you made to stop this waiver policy, which is distorting the economy?
“Our non-oil income has dropped in 2013, a case where increased tariffs on various items effectively reduced importation to zero in some sectors.
“However, those items now find their way into Nigeria through our borders.
“Does it make any sense to increase these tariffs when we have such porous borders? As an example, officially, Togo imported more rice this year than Nigeria.”
Under question number 16, the minister is to explain why the Federal Inland Revenue Service planned to engage foreign consultants to collect tax for the agency, beginning from 2014.
She was therefore asked thus, “Could the minister clarify this position and what Nigeria stands to gain? Has the FIRS not been working effectively?”
Question number 30 dealt with corruption, where the committee expressed doubts over the Federal Government’s commitment to fight corruption and querried why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should be starved of funds.
The committee asked, “Do you believe in the fight against corruption? If you do, why has EFCC not been properly funded? Without properly funding the commission, how should it be expected to carry out its duties effectively?”
The committee also queried the choice of Chevrolet cars for the SURE-P taxis as against Asian and European brands.
It noted that the vehicles were not fuel-efficient and not durable on Nigerian roads.
The document reads, “Who is in charge of the management of SURE-P and who takes responsibility for its success or failure?”
Okonjo-Iweala was also taken to task over the bloated recurrent component of successive national budgets in the country.
The committee recalled that she had boasted to reduce recurrent spending, but failed to keep the promise. For example, the 2014 budget of N4.6trn has a recurrent lion’s share of 72 per cent.
The committee observed, “Since your arrival as Minister of Finance in 2011, you have publicly announced the need to reduce the recurrent expenditure so that more money will be made available to capital spending, which is critical to growing and diversifying the country’s economy.
“How far has government succeeded in making these necessary cuts; and where exactly have these cuts been made in the effort to reduce recurrent expenditure?”
The minister is to respond to the questions within three weeks.
The December 19 session with the minister had ended abruptly after Okonjo-Iweala and the Chairman of the committee, Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, exchanged words.
She had complained of not being accorded respect as a minister after Jibrin shouted at her and later ordered the session closed.
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