The Nigerian Government has given Ship owners operating on her waterways, a three-month window for them to clear their ten years outstanding tax bill running into millions of dollars.
The vessel owners owe Nigeria taxes from 2010 to 2019 and that has made some ship owners to steer clear of the nation’s ports.
Recall that the companies recently received demands from Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) covering the period from 2010 to 2019 between $400,000 and $1.1 million per vessel, totaling millions of dollars.
Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Dr Zachaeus Adedeji who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting between President Bola Tinubu and representatives of the ship owners, said the issue had been resolved.
He said the Nigerian government has now given the vessel owners a window of three months to pay the taxes and balance their accounts.
According to Mr Adedeji, “We’ve now resolved within ourselves to settle this issue as quickly as possible, just to make sure that we don’t affect the flow of the products in and outside the country.
“We also made it clear that Nigeria will not accept any blackmail by defaulters, who are not complying with our laws. We have laws and they must be respected and obeyed.
“However, we will not detain or arrest any defaulting ship or vessel because this is what is causing panic. We’ve sent them a demand notice and then they’ve also come and the agreement is that we should give them time. So we’ve agreed to set up a technical committee to resolve these issues.”
Adedeji said that they held an interactive session within the stakeholders; oil and gas regulators, Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Federal Inland Revenue and Presidency, represented by Special Adviser on Revenue and the Special Adviser on Energy; and have agreed to resolve this issue.
“There was demand notice, which was issued to the vessel owners or chatters, as it were, which is in accordance with the Nigerian tax law, that they should remit the tax deal to them, for the last ten years and that there were concerns about the timing of compliance or fear of enforcement.
“The technical committee will comprise of the regulator, which is NUPRC, NMDRA, NNPC, FIRS, and the Presidency, in the Office of Chief of Staff, SA Energy and SA Revenue and the Secretariat is at the Federal Inland Revenue,” he added.
Adedeji said the technical committee will look at the concerns and reconcile the backlog of taxes and set a process that will ensure compliance going forward.
He said Nigeria is open for business and remains business friendly, as could be seen from the actions and pronouncements of President Bola Tinubu.
“We are open, but that is not to say that anybody will take advantage of the country. We have the law and the law must be respected,” he explained.
