…..grants approval to six firms for fuel importation in July
The Federal Government on Monday gave ship owners operating on Nigeria’s waterways a three-month deadline to settle their accumulated taxes over the past decade, which run into billions of Naira in arrears.
It threatened to bar the ship owners from operating in the country’s ports if they failed to comply with the latest directive on the imperative of offsetting such tax liabilities.
According to the demand notices served by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on the operators, each vessel is owing between $400,000 and $1.1 million as tax liabilities between 2010 and 2019, which the owners must urgently offset to avoid being barred from Nigeria’s waterways.
The Presidential Adviser on Revenue, Dr. Zachaeus Adedeji, who made this disclosure to State House correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu and the representatives of the vessel owners at the Presidential Villa, said that government had given the vessels owners a deadline of three months to pay up the taxes.
He clarified: “We have now resolved within ourselves to settle this issue as quickly as possible just to make sure that we don’t affect the flow of the products in and outside the country.
“We also made it clear that Nigeria will not accept any blackmail by defaulters, who are not complying with our laws. We have laws and they must be respected and obeyed.
“However, we will not detain or arrest any defaulting ship or vessel because this is what is causing panic. We have sent them demand notices and they have also come and the agreement is that we should give them time. So, we have agreed to set up a technical committee to resolve these issues”, the president’s aide added.
According to him, the decision of the new administration followed an interactive session with oil and gas regulators, representatives of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd and the Federal Inland Revenue and the Presidency.
Adedeji confirmed that at the parley during which Special Adviser on Revenue and the Special Adviser on Energy represented the government, all the stakeholders agreed to resolve the issue of outstanding taxes.
He explained: ”There was demand notice, which was issued to the vessel owners or chattered, as it were, which is in accordance with the Nigerian tax law, that they should remit the tax deal to them for the last 10 years and that there were concerns about the timing of compliance or afraid of the enforcement.
“The Technical Committee will comprise of the regulator, which is NUPRC, NMDRA, NNPC, FIRS, and the Presidency, in the Office of Chief of Staff, SA Energy and SA Revenue and the Secretariat is at the Federal Inland Revenue.”
He said that the Technical Committee would look at the concerns raised and reconcile the backlog of taxes and ensure strict compliance of the taxpayers, adding that Nigeria is open for business and remains business friendly as could be seen from the actions and pronouncements of the President.
“We are open, but that is not to say that anybody will take advantage of the country. We have the laws and the laws must be respected.”
In a related development, six oil companies were given approval by the government to import petroleum products in July, 2023.
The Managing Director of Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDRA), Mr. Farouk Ahmed, who gave this hint at the Presidential Villa, pointed out that apart from the six companies, several others have also applied for permit to import petrol.
Ahmed debunked a report which indicated that NNPCL had grated Dangote Group permit to import petrol.
The NMRDA boss said: “There are several companies that applied for fuel importation permit. So, you can apply for importation to get access to the port. And by the way, we are open to all those who are interested in importing.
“We have guidelines which are not very stringent because we are trying to encourage importation.
“There are six companies who said they want to import fuel in July. Of course, all the others may import in December in November, or anytime but those who expressed interest to bring in fuel in July there were six of them as of this morning.
“The beauty of it is that there are interests, which means that they have been able to have access to foreign exchange in order to import.
“Now, as we go along, of course, we will be briefing you on the progress or the achievements so far, but the important thing is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency”, Ahmed added.
