Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, says the Federal Government intends to reduce the cost of tax expenditures and ensure that tax incentives have a positive impact on the economy.

Edun said this while discussing the recent approval of incorporating an Incentive Monitoring and Evaluation Platform (IMEP) into the existing Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) process as captured by a statement released on Monday.

According to the Minister, the IDEC automation, which was introduced as from 1^st March, 2020, is a fiscal incentive by the Federal Government under the Ministry of Finance to boost sectors of the economy by exempting critical players from paying import duty and all other statutory customs charges respectively.

• “This is to provide the Federal Ministry of Finance with a robust automated tool for more effective Monitoring and Evaluation (M &E) measurement of the impact of all customs duty exemptions issued by the Ministry to government entities, companies, non- governmental oganisations (NGOs) and international organisations,” Edun said.

He stated that the system is set up to block and limit access to those who don’t qualify, enforce adherence to fiscal policies, and offer a detailed analysis of how tax incentives affect the economy.

He said that this approach will also help in preventing the misuse of tax expenditures, enhancing the economic benefits derived from fiscal incentives, and improving the direct evaluation of the impact of tax incentives on the economy.

Key features of Incentive Monitoring and Evaluation Platform (IMEP)

Speaking further, Edun identified some of the critical aspects of the Incentive Monitoring and Evaluation Platform (IMEP), which include:

• Duty waiver claw back mechanism for issuance of demand notices to defaulters which would prevent misuse of issued incentive,
• E-report generation,
• A centralised database,
• Factory geo-location tagging,
• Industry qualification status validation, and
• Inter- ministries department and agency (MDA) integration.

Edun also announced that a webinar will be held on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, to explain the updated IDEC process.

[Nairametrics]