Approval for the procurement of an electronic gateway platform for the processing of import duty exemption certificates as well as vehicle identification and registration numbers, under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, have been granted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said after the meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, that an approval was granted to automate the process of the various applications for exemption that were coming to the ministry.
She said these categories of import duty payments and other tax incentives covered a number of sectors, including the downstream gas-utilisation projects, the agro allied processing projects, commercial aircraft engines and spare parts, automobile assembly, iron and steel production, power including thermal hydro, solar and wind, textiles- plants, machinery and equipment imported for use for mining operations.
“In the process of these exemptions, we realised that government was actually ceding quite a significant amount of revenue through this process. Because the process was largely paper based, we got approval to automate this process, to enhance efficiency, to block possible leakage and also to reduce the amount of time that the ministry takes to review this exemption request and provide the necessary approvals.
This portal will be managed by the ministry and the Nigeria Custom Service. The vehicle identification number will be available to any user to access to find out information on vehicles. On our part, on the IDEK component, we will be able to see how much waivers have been granted to which sectors and also track the performers of those waivers and reduce the cost subsequently,” Ahmed said.
The portal is an undertaking in the form of a PPP between the Ministry of Finance and Messrs Fore-core Technology Solutions limited. The company will develop, deploy, manage and transfer back to the ministry. They are to be earning a revenue which is coming from IDEK application fee.
They will earn 10 per cent of the revenue to enable them recover the cost of deployment as well as the management as they will be managing the project over 10-year period.
