Companies on benefits

Nigeria’s Federal High Court has ruled that a group is within its rights to demand information about benefits that tobacco companies received under an export expansion program, according to a story in the Daily Times relayed by the TMA.

Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) had demand a response from the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) about the tax waivers, grants and other benefits that tobacco companies, including BAT Nigeria (BATN), received under the Export Expansion Grant Scheme (EEGS) introduced in 2002.

ERA/FoEN had urged the NCS to release the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

ERA/FoEN is asking the NCS to make public information about the volume and brand names of cigarettes exported from and imported into Nigeria from 2002, and the companies and countries involved.

It wants to know by how much BATN benefited from the EEGS from 2004 to 2014 and the waivers or tax exemptions the company received from 2004. It is asking for information about the volume of leaf tobacco imported into Nigeria by BATN and the source of the leaf.

And it is demanding to know by how much other tobacco companies operating in Nigeria from 2004 benefited from tax waivers or grants.