House of Representatives has mandated its Committees on Finance and Public Accounts to investigate an allegation that some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Government owed N115 Billion as tax liabilities.
The Committee was also told to investigate another allegation that some taxes collected by banks were not remitted to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The investigation was sequel to the adoption of a motion titled: “Need to investigate the allegations that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Government owe N115 billion tax laibilities and that some taxes collected by banks were not remitted to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)”, sponsored by Jerome Amadi (PDP-Rivers).
In his lead debate, Amadi said that the allegation by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that some MDAs were owing the Federal Government such amount of money was a serious issues that needed to be investigated.
He said: “The House notes that with the receding economic recession in the nation, the need to increase government revenues through aggressives taxation drive, policies, remittances and accountability cannot be over emphasized as they continue the veritable measures towards the country completely exiting recession.
“The House is aware of the low culture of individual and corporate organization’ tax compliance, despite taxation being the means through which governments can earn extra revenues to bring about the much desired development to the country, especially in the face of declining revenues from Crude Oil.
“The recent allegation by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that some MDAs are owing the Federal Government N115 billion which is such a serious issue that should not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, especially that those funds could have either been mismanaged or squandered by those agencies;
“The House further notes a similar allegation by the then Acting Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Kabiru Mashi on September 3, 2017 at a forum in Abuja that the FIRS is losing huge revenues through MDAs that award contracts to companies without Tax Identification Number (TIN), pointing out that deductions made for Withholding Tax (WHT) or Value Added Tax (VAT) and remitted through banks are often not tranfered to the FIRS.”
While ruling on the motion, Yussuff Lasun, Deputy Speaker who presided over the plenary sessiin, mandated the joint Committee on Finance and Public Accounts to determine the “amount each Ministry, Department or Agency (MDAs) is owing and for how long the amount had withheld, make recommendations on how to prevent re-occurence of this illegality and report back within 6 weeks for further legislative action.”
Also at plenary, the House received the interim report of the Ad-hoc Committee to interface with the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources on the review of the Price of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) chaired by Nnanna Igbokwe as well as the report of the Ad-hoc Committee to Investigate the health implications of mounting telecommunications masts close to buildings, chaired by Eboro Ekanem.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
