Monrovia – The National Investment Commission (NIC) has told members of the House of Representatives that documents presented to the House Committee on investment giving special investment incentive to few businesses were an inadvertent “typo error”.
Report by Henry Karmo – [email protected]
Mr. George Wisner, Executive Director of the NIC appearing before Plenary Tuesday said the job of the NIC is to recommend to the Finance Ministry special investment incentives and not to give incentive to businesses.
The NIC was invited to the House to give the constitutional reference that gives the NIC the power to give special investment incentive to businesses when as was stated in their report to the Committee.
Wisner: “Honourable members of the legislature, with specific reference to some of the figures that have been cited let me apologize those might be typographical errors.”
Article 34 D. of the Liberian Constitution gives power to the legislature to levy taxes, duties, imports, exercise and other revenues, to borrow money, issue currency, mint coins, and to make appropriations for the fiscal governance of the Republic, subject to the following qualifications:
“All revenue bills, whether subsidies, charges, imports, duties or taxes, and other financial bills, shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. “
“No other financial charge shall be established, fixed, laid or levied on any individual, community or locality under any pretext whatsoever except by the expressed consent of the individual, community or locality. In all such cases, a true and correct account of funds collected shall be made to the community or locality”
In the lawmakers’ argument, the NIC gave investment incentives to companies including; Rainbow (Print) industry Inc., Global Logistics Services, Premier Milling Corporation, Liberia Foam Plate Factory, Creative Industries, National air products, FMG Water Industrial INC, Hope Bakery, Bella Casa Hotel and Milla Group, amongst others.
In the special investment incentive, the Government of Liberia is expected to lose several thousand United States dollars in revenue generation.
In his statement at the legislature Wisner said, under section 16 of the consolidated Tax Amendment Act of 2011, a company is qualified to benefit from special investment incentives if the company operates in one of the 15 “priority sectors” and the investment capital is at least US$500,000 and US$300,000 for foreign and Liberian companies respectively.
The sectors include; energy, health services, real estate, transport, technology, agriculture, poultry, horticulture, exportation of sea products and agricultural food crop cultivation.
Others include; rubber and oil palm cultivation processing, manufacturing of assembly for export as well as waste management.