Minister, rice importers duty row grows

More factsemerged yesterday on the rice import duty waivers row between Agriculture and Rural Development Minister  Akinwunmi Adesina and some importers.

Dr. Adesina may have contravened a presidential order by licensing unqualified importers to bring in rice, it was learnt. A source in the Presidency said  there was a presidential directive in May to give import licences to existing rice millers following a meeting among the Ministers of Trade and Investment; National Planning; Finance and Agriculture to that effect.

The purpose of the directive, the source said, was to augment the shortfall in the local rice production capacity.

Consequently, a letter dated July 8, 2014 from the office of the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, gave the directive to relevant government agencies and bodies, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment; and Budget Office of the Federation.

Others were Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; Federal Inland Revenue Service; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Nigerian Export Promotion Council; Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission.

The letter was titled: “Importation of Brown rice (H.S Code 1006.2000.00) and semi-milled or wholly milled rice, whether or not polished or glazed (H.S Code 1006.3010.00) by investors with rice milling capacity and verifiable backward integration programme.”

However, from May last year when the directive was received, nothing was done towards its implementation until December, when Adesina allegedly issued a licence to non-existing rice millers, an action that did not go down well with rice millers in the country.

It was also revealed that the current spat between the Minister and major rice millers in the country was as a result of the breach of the presidential directive, as none of them was granted the import licence as directed by the Presidency.

The matter got to its head when it was discovered that those who got the import licences began to seek the support of existing rice millers to buy-off their respective allocation, as the beneficiaries of the import licences lack capacity to undertake the task.

Among other things, the Presidency official said going by the norm, there was no Inter-ministerial Committee formed as instructed by Mr. President to deliberate on the matter and issue the licences, adding that the quotas were issued unilaterally by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) at the minister’s discretion, allegedly to his favorites with no milling capacity, thus causing a huge reduction in allocations to existing millers.

It equally alleged that the total quota allocation was not as per the supply gap of the product required as major stakeholders were not involved and that the quotas were issued retrospectively, which, as alleged, is against the legal framework of the nation.

But the Minister has denied the allegations. He said some smart import companies tried to abuse the Federal Government’s rice production policy by importing huge quantities of the commodity in excess of their approved quotas.

Adesina, who appeared before an Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives in Abuja, told lawmakers that some importers did not only breach their quotas, but also failed to pay the duties for the excess imports.

He said some of the affected importers are owing the Federal Government duties in excess of N36 billion. “Nigeria is not a Banana Republic; we have laws here and the laws must work. All duties and levies must be paid to the last kobo. Importers must pay the appropriate duties,” Adesina declared.

Explaining that the policy was to cut imports and encourage local production of rice by allocating quotas to importers, he said the policy specified that any importer who chose to import more than its allotted quota, would pay 70 per cent of duties and levies to the Federal Government.

The committee, which is investigating alleged “fraud” and evasion of import duties and levies, is chaired by the House Deputy Leader, Leo Ogor.