Friday, 24 March 2017

Tobacco taxes: Group gets nod to sue FG – The Tide, February 22, 2017

By Ike Wigodo
A Federal High Court in Lagos,  presided by Justice Mc Idris  has affirmed that the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has the right to demand and get a response from the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on its request for information on tax benefits granted to tobacco companies under the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) scheme.
The group had, on 28 November 2016, through its counsel-Yinka Kotoye made the request in line with the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, with the letter addressed to the Comptroller-General of NCS and the other respondent being the Minister of Finance, Dr Kemi Adeosun.  The Attorney-General of the federation was copied.
ERA/FoEN is asking among other things that the NCS  make public the volume and brand names of cigarettes exported from Nigeria from 2002 till date, those imported within that period, by which company and to which country, how much British American Tobacco Company Nigeria (BATN) benefited from the EEG from 2004 to 2014 and the waivers or tax exemptions the company got from 2004 till date.
The group also is to know how much tax waiver, or grants benefited by any other tobacco company operating in Nigeria from 2004 till date, volume of raw tobacco leaf imported into Nigeria by BATN and from which country and volume of shredded tobacco imported into Nigeria by the company and from which country as well, volume of raw tobacco leaf imported into Nigeria by any other tobacco company, into Nigeria and from which country, volume of shredded tobacco by any other tobacco company, into Nigeria and from which country, location of cigarette factories in Nigeria, and volume and brands produced from each factory.
The motion exparte by the ERA/FoEN also demanded among others that the, Attorney General and the Minister of Justice and the Finance minister should mandate the NCS to comply with the mandatory provisions of the FOIA to make the document available to it.
Reacting to the court ruling, ERA/FoEN Deputy Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi said “This is a good development as we have reiterated that our demand aligns with the Federal Government attempts to track and trace every revenue that was illegally diverted into private hands or undue grants that was used to bleed our economy.  We are very much interested in the economics of tobacco business in Nigeria”.

It would be recalled that ERA/FoEN went to court after the mandatory seven day period of response from the NCS under Section 5 of the FOI Act to respond elapsed with no response from the agency.  The case was adjourned to 24 February 2017.
* Source: Media Rights Agenda

No comments:

Post a Comment