The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved $188.807 million and N8.576 billion for some road, power and port projects.
The approvals included reimbursement of N7.943 billion to Kwara State for construction of Kayamakishe road.
Afam Power Plant was approved for $186.6 million.
The contract for the substation of the Afam plant is $2.207 million for the offshore components and N133.184 million for the local components.
The council also approved N500 million for completion of Baro River Port.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said for the road project, Kwara applied to be allowed to construct the road and be refunded in the future.
He was with Minister of Finance Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Minister of Information Lai Mohammed.
He said: “FEC gave approval for the reimbursement of Kwara State government to undertake the construction of the Kayamakishe road which is a road that serves the Agricultural belt that produces Agro Product between Oyo and Kwara state.
“So Kwara State has applied to be allowed to take that road on the basis that they will be refunded at sometime in the future. We have actually received anticipatory approval from Mr. President and Council has ratified that approval for them to continue. The road contract is N7.943billion
“The other one is consistent with infrastructure development in the country is the memo for the Afam emergency fast power which is part of the ministry’s roadmap for incremental power to the grid. Council ratified the earlier approval given for GE to undertake that project so that we can complete 240megawatt (Mw) of emergency power through 830Mw turbines this year.
“Council also approved the contract for the construction and rehabilitation of the sub-station to enable the evacuation of the power, once the turbines are installed. The total package for the Afam power plant is $186.6million and the contract for the substation is $2.207 million for the components that are offshore and N133.184 million for the local components.” he said
Mrs Adeosun said the Council gave the Ministry permission to sign a multilateral convention to implement tax treaty related matters to prevent base erosion and profit shifting.
She said:“In simple language, this administration is very focused on revenue generation and mobilisation and part of that work is to improve our tax collection.
“One of the means by which major companies evade is a practice called base erosion and profit shifting which means that the profit that was made in Nigeria using accounting methods shift it to a country that has little or no tax.
“So really the country in which profit was generated doesn’t get tax, they go and declare those profits in a country that has very low tax.
“There is a contact among the G20 countries and the OECD to end this and Nigeria was part of those who negotiated this convention and today Council gave us permission to go and sign the conventions.
“What that convention would mean is that where we have existing bilateral tax treaties, like Nigeria already has some tax treaties with certain countries which actually are not in our favour and I gave example to Council. For example we sign a treaty with a particular country that says their national carrier will not pay tax in Nigeria and in exchange Nigeria’s national carrier will not pay tax in their country but as you know Nigeria does not have a national carrier, so that type of arrangement is adverse to Nigeria.
