Tinubu’s removal of tariffs on rice, other food items still under consideration, not yet official – Presidency

Our reporter/ The government of President Bola Tinubu is considering suspending tariffs on rice and other food commodities’ imports for 150 days to rein in hunger nationwide.

A leaked memo on the matter circulated online on Monday.

Abubakar Kyari, minister of agriculture and food security, had in a statement earlier on Monday,  said duties, tariffs and taxes on imported maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas — through land and sea borders — have been suspended.

Kyari said a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities will be enforced as part of measures to be implemented over the next 180 days to ameliorate food inflation in Nigeria.

According to him, the measures are part of the accelerated stabilisation and advancement plan recently presented to President Bola Tinubu by the economic management team (EMT) under the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC) constituted by the president in March.

The minister said multiple taxes and levies, infrastructural challenges and “sheer profiteering by marketers and traders” have contributed to rising food prices.

But Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga clarified later on Monday that the memo was already circulating across government departments, but said the policy was not imminent as of Monday evening.

He also noted that the leakage of the memo was a regrettable error.

“The policy was mistakenly circulated,” Onanuga said on Monday evening. “We are still deliberating internationally from the agric ministry to other agencies on how best to proceed with the policy.”

Onanuga apologised for the error and said the government was not oblivious to its potential impact on longsuffering Nigerians.

The retracted policy draft said the measures would be implemented over the next 150 days and involve relaxing duties, tariffs and taxes on importing certain food commodities through land and sea borders.

The Tinubu government is facing growing anger among Nigerians over its failure to address endemic food shortages urgently, even as inflation hovered at historically high figures.

On Monday a frustrated citizen attempted to jump to his death from a 40-metre-high radio transmitter over worsening economic crisis.