Business President Buhari Slashes Import Duty on 115 Items

[LequteMan]

The Nigerian government has slashed the import duty on 115 items part of policy measures to alleviate the current economic hardship.

According to Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the approval for the slash was given by President Muhammadu Buhari and is in line with the provisions of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff agreement.

A breakdown of the import adjustment list of 173 items shows that the government approved the reduction of 26 items from 10 to five per cent.

Similarly, the import duties of 89 items were reviewed downwards to five per cent from a national list of 91 products.

The items in the national list whose import duties were reduced from 10 per cent to five per cent are

• milk and cream;
• tea;
• fats of sheep or goat;
• malt extract;
• tomatoes prepared or preserved by vinegar;
• under natured ethyl alcohol for medical, pharmaceutical or scientific purpose;
• petroleum oils and oils obtained from bitumen minerals other than crude.
• hypochlorites;
• synthetic organic colouring matter;
• grease for treatment of textile materials;
• prepared glues and adhesives;
• activated carbon;
• picking preparations for metal surfaces;
• organic composite solvents and thinners;
• mixes alkylbenzenes;
• industrial monocarboxylic fatty acids.

However, the government has reinforced the ban placed on the importation of some items including refined vegetable oil, cocoa butter, fruit juice in retail packs, among others.