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Barely a week after the House of Representatives resolved to investigate an alleged N50bn waiver granted to Vaswani Brothers, the lawmakers have directed its committees on Customs and Excise and Finance to carry out a comprehensive probe into the legality or otherwise of waivers, exemptions and concessions granted by the Federal Government from 1999 to date.
The decision was reached by the lawmakers when the House adopted the resolutions of a motion moved by Hon. Yakubu Dogara on the issue.
Dogara had disclosed while leading debate on the motion that available records from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) indicate that alleged indiscriminate and illegal waivers, exemptions and concessions had cost the nation a whopping N276.9 billion between 2000 and 2008.
He said, “Not less than 183 undertakings and individuals are currently beneficiaries of waivers, exemptions and concessions running into several billions of naira that ought to have accrued to the Federation Account as revenue.”
He added that it was a contravention of sections 80 and 162 of the 1999 Constitution, which gave such powers to only the National Assembly.
He urged the federal government to revoke all such existing grants that were not backed by extant laws or protocols pending the outcome of the investigation.
The recommendations of the investigation is expected to be presented to the House within four weeks.
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