Two months after the federal government issued a directive for the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of food staples through land and sea borders to reduce inflation, the policy is yet to be implemented.
The Nigeria Custom Service (NCS) has blamed the situation on the inability of the Ministry of Finance to send it a list of beneficiaries.
The NCS, had, however said n August 14, that it had commence the implementation of the policy to allow the importation of maize, husked brown rice, beans, millet, and wheat.
Spokesperson of the NCS, Abdullahi Maiwada, said at a joint press briefing of security agencies, organised by the strategic communications inter-agency policy committee (SCIPC) in Abuja, that “People think that me and you can just go and import rice. No, that is not what the policy is all about. We have policy issues that have a long-term effect. We have the medium-term and we have the short-term effects.
“So, while formulating policies that are related that have a short-term effect, we have to do it in such a way that it will not have adverse effects on long-term policy issues.
“Our responsibility as an agency of government, NCS, is to implement government policies.
“That’s why the statement we issued is based on the guideline issued by the federal ministry of finance.”
Continuing, Maiwada said the ministry of finance issued a guideline on the conditions and the requirements for participation in the zero import duty scheme.
“We have three lines, six lines of tariff line with the HS code (harmonized system code) with initially a duty of 35% and leave you some of the items and they have all been waived.
“However, the policy stated clearly that you must be a miller, you must be a taxpayer, you must have been into operations for a certain number of years and there will be a quota that will be issued by the federal ministry of finance.
“So, the list of those who benefit from those exemptions will come from the ministry of finance and our role as an agency of government is to implement the directives of the government. So we are policy implementers, not formulators.
“So, by the time we get those lists, within the twinkle of an eye, we are going to implement those directives from the federal ministry of finance,” he added.
