Nigeria - Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has disclosed that FG has lost huge revenue (over $20bn) to tax holidays fraudulently granted companies by officials of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), THISDAY reports.
   
In a recent letter to NIPC Executive Secretary, Mrs Saratu Umar, she noted that "pioneer status (tax holidays) was granted to companies whose products do not meet the requirements of the list of industries or products specified in the schedule to the Act."

The minister further noted that while oil companies were supposed to be taxed 65 per cent in accordance with the Petroleum Profit Tax Act (PPTA), certain officials of NIPC had fraudulently listed such companies under the Industrial Development (Tax Relief) Act and handed them pioneer certificates.

She said NIPC officials granted tax holidays "for a straight five year- period, contrary to the provision of Section 10 of the Act which states that the tax relief period for a pioneer company shall commence from the production date of the company and shall continue for a period of three years in the first instance, and may be extended for a period of one year and thereafter for another one year, or for a period of two years subject to the satisfaction of Mr. President that certain requirements such as rate of expansion, standard of efficiency, level of development of company, among others, are met."

Although the minister didn't state how much revenue was lost to the activities, a top official of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) said Nigeria may have lost over $20 billion between 2010 and 2014.

"Until recently, several fat cats in NIPC were neck-deep in this fraud and made hundreds of millions of US Dollars at the expense of Nigerians. Any wonder the new ES, in trying to re-organise the place, is locked in a running battle with the syndicate?"