The federal government has given its approval for implementing an electronic monitoring and evaluation (M & E) system to help cut down on tax spending related to the current Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC) program.
An Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) is granted for items that are not subject to payment of duties, levies, or other types of taxes, as outlined in existing laws and international agreements.
The inclusion of the Incentive Monitoring and Evaluation Platform (IMEP) framework, approved by Mr. Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, is intended to equip the ministry with a sophisticated automated tool to enhance the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluating the impact of customs duty exemptions granted to government entities, companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and international organizations.
In a statement bearing his personal signature, Edun noted that the primary goal of the IMEP is to reduce tax expenditures and ensure that tax incentives have a positive impact on the economy in the long run.
The statement read: “Towards reducing tax expenditures due to the granting of Import Duty Exemption Certificates (IDEC), the Honourable Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (HMF & CME) has approved the addition of an electronic monitoring and evaluation framework (M & E) to the current IDEC process.
“This is to provide the Federal Ministry of Finance with a robust automated tool for more effective M & E measurement of the impact of all customs duty exemptions issued by the Ministry to Government entities, Companies, NGOs and International organisations.
“This system is designed to provide a framework to check-mate and restrict ineligible applicants, enforce strict compliance to fiscal policy measures and provide a robust impact analysis of tax incentives on the economy.
“This would further eliminate the misuse of tax expenditures; support the delivery of economic outcomes from fiscal incentives and strengthen the direct measurement of the impact of tax incentives on the economy.
“Key features of the IMEP include duty claw-back mechanism, e-report generation; a centralised database; factory geo-location tagging; industry qualification status validation; inter-MDA integration; incentive tracking and issuance of Demand Notices to defaulters.
“The aim of the IMEP is to ultimately cut down on cost of tax expenditure and ensure tax incentives positively impact the economy.”
