Rice Duty Waivers: House Directs Customs to Ignore Political Directives
Slams Adesina for acting without authority on rice allocations, waivers
The House of Representatives yesterday asked the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to neglect any instruction emanating from certain political office holders regarding the waivers of import duties imposed on some products brought into the countries.
The directive of the House was against the backdrop of snippets of information gleaned from an investigative hearing on rice import quota and duty payments held by an ad-hoc committee within the precinct of the National Assembly.
Members of the committee, led by Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP, Delta), learnt from a cross-section of stakeholders, particularly the NCS, that the incumbent Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Muhammad Bello Adoke, has been allegedly influencing the body’s decision in the matter of collection of duties on imported rice.
Also, the committee chided the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, for allegedly acting beyond his authority and single handedly awarding rice importation quota and waivers to individuals and groups who do not meet the criteria.
According to the committee, the directive of the federal government was that an Inter Ministerial Committee consisting of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade & Investment and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was to determine the national rice supply gap resulting in allocation of appropriate quotas to the eligible companies with the approval of Mr. President. A charge which it said was bungled by the minister of agriculture.
“The allocation of quotas were reportedly done unilaterally by the Ministry of Agriculture and quotas were allocated to companies without any existing milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme. This also led to paltry allocations to substantial investors in the domestic rice value chain which was counterproductive to Mr. President’s approval through the Minister of Finance circular. It is now public knowledge that the extra quotas that were issued upon the discretion of the Minister of Agriculture were sold in the market to the highest bidder making a mockery of the whole policy, while leaving the genuine investors to perish away.”
Ogor expressed disappointment at the attitude of the minister despite the fact that the committee duly invited him. He said: “This hearing was sequel to a resolution of the House mandating the ad hoc committee to investigate alleged fraud, abuses, evasion of import duties by rice importers. “The minister has no reason not to be here because the Ministry (of Agriculture) was duly served the invitation.
He said, “I see no reason why people would be invited to a hearing that is for the benefit of the people and they will not turn up. “You are a servant of the people just like we all are. What we are doing here is for the benefit of our nation’s economy. Before the end of the hearing, we are hoping to see people from the ministry come in, otherwise we may be forced to make some very strong pronouncements.”
According to the committee, there are complaints that the minister aided the nonpayment of the duties by the importers, raising questions on the authority of the minister to grant such duty exemptions.
Ogor said: “The minister does not have the powers to allocate rice import or production quota to any company and then waive duties because the corresponding revenue involved is for the entire federation, which consists of the three tiers of government. He added “The minister should stop deceiving himself thinking that he acts for every tier of government.”
The Chairman of the committee, noted that despite series of letters to the Honourable Minister of Agriculture there was no response or submission of a position paper and it was surprising that the minister was not at the public hearing despite notice and delivery of invitation.
Ogor, who urged the NCS to be circumspect about instructions from politicians that are detrimental to national interest also cautioned, upon learning that the alleged minister’s directives were verbal, that the service should act professionally and within the ambit of the law.
“If I were to invite the minister here he would deny giving you such instruction because he knows the import of owing up to such issue,” Ogor advised.
He called on the NCS to be guided by the extant legislation of the Act setting up the organisation, which states inter alia that no goods, for which duty is prescribed, shall be cleared for entry into the country unless such duty is paid.
In his submission however, the minister of agriculture, Adesina, denied collusion, cover-up or shady deals in matters regarding the sourcing of import duties on rice, which outstanding amount is put at N36 billion
He explained that after series of consultations with relevant stakeholders in the sector, the ministry decided that it was appropriate to harness collection of duties on imported rice in order to discourage the trend with a view to encouraging local production, which quality and dietary benefit is much more than that of the foreign rice.
One of the large scale rice producers in the country and the former minister of Justice, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, reiterated Adesina’s position, stressing that all importers must pay the government what is due to it instead of blaming officials for what is abinitio their lawful obligation.
Aondoakaa said rice importation companies should fulfil their civic duties and leave the choice of purchasing to the consumers, who may go for their products, “which has been in storage, somewhere for seven years” or buy the fresh local product.