- Following the loss of billions of naira to waivers, the senate yesterday urged the federal government to stop all waivers on rice and agriculture produce importation for now and mandated the central bank governor, and the comptroller -general of customs to ensure that all duty due to government were recovered.
- The senate also set up an adhoc committee to look into all waivers and carry out holistic reviews to determine the full recovery of all government’s revenue related to this policy.
- The committee which was given two weeks to report back to the senate has senators Gershom Bassey, Sam Egwu, Danjuma La’ah, Stella Oduah, Tayo Aladura and Sabo Mohammed as members while Adamu Aliero is the chairman.
The resolutions are sequel to the motion sponsored by Senator Adebayo Ibrahim ( Kwara) titled: “Indiscriminate Use and Abuse of Waivers for Rice Importation.”
- Leading the debate, Senator Ibrahim noted that the federal government has a policy to encourage agriculture business as a deliberate policy to diversify the economy.
- He also observed that this policy especially relating to agriculture has become significantly eroded and gradually made nonsense of by indiscriminate abusive grants of waivers, concessions and grants especially on rice importation.
- Source: Leadership
Senate Wants FG To Stop Waivers On Rice And Other Imports
