Senate to cut proposed N6trn import duty waiver by 50%
The Senate will curtail the import duties waivers proposed for the N19.76trillion 2023 budget with attendant deficit of N12.4trillion.
This was disclosed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Solomon Adeola in Abuja on Tuesday, at an interactive session on the 2023- 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, with revenue generating agencies.
Mr Adeola said the reduction became crucial due to the projected deficit of N12.4 trillion in the 2023 budget estimates and the current dwindling revenue profile of the nation.
He said the conscious effort must be made to decrease the accumulating budget deficits, adding that borrowing trends cannot be allowed to continue unchecked.
According to him, there was a pressing need to look inward towards increased revenue generation and blocking of leakages.
“About six trillion was provided as waiver for companies in the 2023 proposal, but we should reduce it by 50 per cent.
“I don’t think we can accommodate that, we need to reduce the six trillion waiver by 50 per cent,” Mr Adeola said.
Also, Mr Adeola persuaded the Ministry of Finance to place 63 Government Owned Enterprises, GOEs, on cost of collection to fund their expenditures with immediate effect.
He added that this would develop more revenue to fund the deficit envisaged in 2023 budget.
Adeola said the placing the agencies on cost of collection would prompt the GOEs to collect more, because the more they generate, the more they receive.
He further called for a review of pioneer legislation status on tax of some companies in the last five years.
