Bureau de change
Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has described as
unfair, unjust and inequitable, the N35 million minimum capital base,
slammed on Bureau de Change operators in the country.Makarfi, who spoke
with newsmen in Abuja, however said both chambers of the National
Assembly are already making moves to intervene on the matter with a view to
ensuring justice.
According to him, “The House of Representatives has taken it
up as a motion , but we in the Senate will adopt a different method of
intervention, and to bring about dialogue and discussion between the operators
of the industry and the regulators so that something more workable, and
more humane, would emerge at the end of the day.”
He maintained that the CBN could only justify the imposition
of huge capital base on the operators if the regulatory agency had enough
foreign exchange to sell to the bureaux de change at regulated rates.
“If the reason for raising the capital base is because of
scarcity of forex, that means government does not have enough to sell. There is
no harm making such a policy. If it wants to raise capital base for those
that are buying forex, it may do so but the bulk of operation of bureau de
change should not be seen they are going to buy from government.
“In other countries, government can sell forex to bureau de
change in order to regulate exchange rate through various means. But the day to
day activities of the bureau de change is not like that, they sell based on
what they buy.
“With the minimum capital requirement, for you to open
bureau de change, you should be allowed to operate and buy your forex
where you can get them and sell and make a living but if CBN is saying you need
a minimum capital base of N10 million or more, before it can sell, then it must
sell what is commensurate with the capital outlined out.
“The CBN should make it an option to say, pay the
minimum capital base if you want to buy forex from CBN or ignore the directive
if you have alternative way of sourcing forex.”
He also described as wrong, and unacceptable, the decision
of an Abuja Federal High Court to stop the House of Representatives
investigation of the N10 billion allegedly spent by Petroleum Resources Minister,
Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, to hire aircraft.
“I think it was wrong for any court to stop the National
Assembly from legislating or investigation. The National Assembly cannot stop
any court from trying any case before it.
“Equally, the court should not interfere in the operation of
the National Assembly to make laws or to investigate any matter.The court can
find faults at the end of the day. If a legislation is unconstitutional the
court has the power to annul such a legislation.
“If an investigation was biased, and someone proves before
the court that he was not given a fair hearing. That is a post-investigative
issue and not a pre-investigation.
“I think the heads of the Judiciary and the heads of the
Legislature should really talk to each other and streamline so that we adopt a
code of conduct that is good for the Judiciary, good for the Legislature, good
for democracy and good for this country,” Makarfi said.
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