Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed for second reading a bill to amend the Companies Income Tax Act, which would mandate the National Assembly to approve Federal Government waivers.
Recall that the coordinating minister of economy and minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had disclosed that Nigeria lost N170.73 billion to exemptions and import waivers in the last three years.
Okonjo-Iweala, in response to one of the 50 questions on the state of the economy, posed by the House Committee on Finance, said that waivers and exemptions of N55.96 billion were given in 2011; N55.34 billion in 2012, while the 2013 fiscal year had N59.42 billion, a regime the lawmakers have severally tagged “arbitrary” and are seeking to vet.
The bill’s sponsor, Hon. Mustapha Khabeeb, said that the amendment would be in conformity with Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Deputy House leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, and Hon. Abdurrahman Terab, while supporting the amendments, observed that there is tmneed to extend the amendment of the Customs Act.
Terab explained that the inclusion of the Customs bill and other waiver related bill could be brought in during the committee legislative work on the bill.
In other contributions, Hon. Forte Dike said that the rate of waivers in the country has become “alarming”.
Speaking in dissent, Hon. Friday Itulah cautioned lawmakers not to mix the executives’ function with those of the legislators.
In his ruling, the speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, referred the bill to the committees of finance, customs and justice for further legislative work.
