The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has given Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance the go-ahead to develop an automated customs portal to be used to process and issue Import Duties Exemption Certificate (IDEC).
The certificate is issued on items that are exempted from payment of duties, levies and other forms of taxation which are in accordance with the provisions of extant statutes and international agreements.
Mr Paul Abechi, the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media and Communications, said that a Full Business Case Compliance Certificate had been presented to the ministry by ICRC.
According to him, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed said that once completed the project would help block leakages and improve the revenue base of the country.
She said that the finance ministry would have to get the approval of the Federal Executive Council before the Public Private Partnership of the project would take full course.
According to her, the government currently loses a significant amount in revenues due to its inability to adequately control the IDEC processes.
“The portal will give us control. It will help us to be able to track and monitor the IDEC that we issue.
“It will also help us to monitor the performance of the companies that we give this IDEC to and we will also be able to interface the IDEC system with the Nigeria Customs Service,’’ she said.
Also, the Director-General of ICRC, Engr Izuwah said that the IDEC project was a very laudable one and of great and urgent importance to enable the country cut the huge revenue loses to the tune of over N2 trillion due to manual processes.
“We considered this a national revenue emergency and we gave it the needed attention and turned it around very quickly,’’ he said.
Izuwah also spoke on the need to create a Special Concession Account, which according to him will be a huge opportunity to increase the revenue that is available to the government and block leakages.
Forecore Technology Solution Limited has been selected as the preferred partner to develop, deploy, manage and transfer the automated IDEC for a 10-year concession period.
