Minister of finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina and others have been summoned by the House of Representatives over alleged N21billion rice importation tax evasion scam.According to Vanguard, the ministers and 25 rice importers are expected to explain to the lawmakers how over N21bn tax was evaded despite the provision of subsidy by the Federal Government to the importers.
It was also reported the whole rice importation exercise was grossly abused by the importers and laced with fraud.
Many of the importers were also accused of evading tax after receiving huge subsidies from the government.
The Nigeria Customs Service was also summoned to explain why tax duties was never collected from the importers in question.
A source involved in the investigation told Vanguard: “We’ll unravel those government officials who aided these economic saboteurs and ensure that all the tax they cornered is returned to government coffers.
“The adhoc committee set up by the House will also ensure that they are speedily prosecuted.
“We’ve also discovered that those who got subsidy were the ones that even evaded tax more than those that did not get a dime from government”.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has in recent time come under criticism for alleged mismanagement of Nigeria’s economy.
In February, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Chukwuma Soludo, claimed that at least N30 trillion of Nigerian money has either been stolen, diverted or unaccounted for in the last few years under her watch.
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