By Dipo Olowookere
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah, has disclosed that tax holiday has been granted to 27 new industries and products, including the agro and agro-processing, industrialization, creative industries, power, science and technology.
Mr Enelamah, while addressing newsmen on Wednesday after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, noted that the tax break was to enable players in the sectors to grow and expand their investments.
He emphasised that these new industries entered into the pioneer status would enjoy tax holidays for at least three years, with an option to extend for another one or two years.
According to him, the list was last reviewed in 2006 and the approval was to bring the industrial policy of the country to global best practices.
“The FEC gave approval to a memorandum that was presented to amend the list of pioneer industries and products that will enjoy pioneer status going forward.
“The pioneer incentive scheme is governed by the Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act.
“The whole purpose of it is to give tax holidays to industries that we consider pioneer, not mature, to enable them to grow and attract investment in them,” the Minister explained.
Speaking further, Mr Enelamah said, “We have tried to remove all ambiguities in the definition of industries by reclassifying industries according to the international standard industrial classification, which is the same standard used by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“We also agreed that the pioneer list should be reviewed every two years and that in the case of additions to the list, it will be affected immediately.
“In case of deletion from the list, there will be a three-year window that will be allowed for those investing in that industry and enjoying pioneer status to carry on till the end of that three-year period.
“Against this backdrop, we then approved 27 industries that were recommended for addition to the pioneer list.”
He said the full list would be made public, but stressed that the mineral oil prospecting, already governed by the petroleum profit tax, was not part of the pioneer industries, same for the cement where the country already had become net exporters.
