The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has revealed that some companies have flouted the terms and conditions for obtaining a three-year low tariffs for sugar importation into the country.
The Executive Secretary of the council, Dr. Abdullatif Demola Busari, made the revelation at a roundtable forum with journalists in Abuja last week.
In January 2013, the Federal Government approved concessionary low tariffs of five per cent duty and five per cent levy for raw sugar import for three companies including the BUA Group as against the five per cent duty and 70 per cent levy contained in the National Sugar Policy.
Busari said though the high tariffs for refined sugar import into the country was deliberately designed to discourage importation and encourage local production of sugar, the concession became necessary in order not to hike the local price of the commodity since the country has not achieved self-sufficiency in sugar production yet.
He said Nigeria still depends on sugar importation to meet 90 per cent of local demand and that led to the plea by stakeholders that if sugar is to be imported at that high tariff level, the cost of sugar to the consumers would be prohibitive.
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