Import Duty Exemption: FG Okays Electronic Monitoring, Evaluation Platform

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

The federal government has approved the introduction of an electronic monitoring and evaluation (M & E) framework as part of overall measures towards reducing tax expenditures arising from the granting of the current Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) regime.

An IDEC 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.

The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, who approved the inclusion of the M & E framework known as Incentive Monitoring and Evaluation Platform (IMEP), said the move was designed to provide his ministry with a robust automated tool for more effective M & E measurement of the impact of all customs duty exemptions issued by the ministry to government entities, companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as international organisations.

Edun, in a statement personally signed by him, added that the aim of the IMEP was to ultimately cut down on cost of tax expenditure and ensure tax incentives positively impact the economy.

The statement read: “Towards reducing tax expenditures due to the granting of Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC), the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (HMF & CME) has approved the addition of an electronic monitoring and evaluation framework (M & E) to the current IDEC process.

“This is to provide the Federal Ministry of Finance with a robust automated tool for more effective M & E measurement of the impact of all customs duty exemptions issued by the Ministry to Government entities, Companies, NGOs and International organisations.

“This system is designed to provide a framework to check-mate and restrict ineligible applicants, enforce strict compliance to fiscal policy measures and provide a robust impact analysis of tax incentives on the economy.

“This would further eliminate the misuse of tax expenditures; support the delivery of economic outcomes from fiscal incentives and strengthen the direct measurement of the impact of tax incentives on the economy.

“Key features of the IMEP include duty claw-back mechanism, e-report generation; a centralised database; factory geo-location tagging; industry qualification status validation; inter-MDA integration; incentive tracking and issuance of Demand Notices to defaulters.

“The aim of the IMEP is to ultimately cut down on cost of tax expenditure and ensure tax incentives positively impact the economy.”