The Nigerian Senate has uncovered how major companies granted concessions and waivers failed to remit 447 billion naira into the federation account from 2011 to 2015 and has now directed the Federal Government to immediately recover the unremitted funds.
This was revealed during the consideration of the report of the Senate Adhoc Committee on Import Duty Waivers, Concession and Grants chaired by Senator Adamu Aliero.
The report lamented large scale revenue leakages that robbed government of huge monies that would have been used for infrastructural development and social services.
In the report, Stallion Group/Popular Foods, Olam International Limited, Elephant Group, Bua Int. Ltd, Honeywell Group, Dangote Group, and Ibeto Group were listed among a string of companies that benefitted from various import duty waivers and concession scams under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The report stated that Customs duty waivers and concessions were used by the Budget Office of the Federation to entrench a very destructive patronage system where very few operators in the economy were singled-out for favours resulting in unfair competition in the system.
Senate Leader Ali Ndume after plenary told parliamentary correspondents that the investigation was not targeted at ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
•Text courtesy of TVC. Photo shows Committee Chairman, Senator Adamu Aliero.
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