The President, Chartered
Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Mr Mark-Anthony Dike, said that Nigeria lost the sum of N170.73bn on import waivers and exemption within the last three years.
Dike made this known in has keynote address during a seminar on the 2014 Federal Government Budget organized by the Institute in Abuja recently.
According to him, the country in 2011, made a waiver and exemption of N55.96bn, and in 2012, it was N55.34bn while the 2013 fiscal year, recorded N59.42bn lose.
He decried he huge sum of money that Federal Government last as a result of granting waivers and exemptions to companies, and noted that the situation is affecting the full implementation of the 2014 budget.
The CITN boss said the seminar was aimed at forestalling repeat of errors made in the previous budgets and offer constructive advice on how to effectively implement the nation’s budget.
Dike said there was no way the government could justify the waivers and concessions given to companies in view of the current economic realities, pointing out that these waivers to items with little or no benefit to the economic growth of the country.
He noted that the huge domestic and foreign debts of deficit financing  would have been reduced if the government had not taken such steps arbitrarily in the past.
“Even more worrisome is the huge revenue losses resulting from the implementation of waivers concessions and exemptions,” he said, stressing that the waivers granted to items with little or no benefit to the economy could not be justified on a reasonable ground.
The president lamented that such waivers further reduce the funds available to implement the budget resulting in deficit funding and appealed to the government to seriously look into such waivers and import exemptions in the country for the interest of the economy.

Comptroller-General of Customs, Dikko Abdullahi (4th left), with some members of customs managmeent, unveiling the new camouflage uniform in Abuja last Wednesday..