The Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association on Monday instructed its members not to allow the House of Representatives Committee on Finance to carry out a tax audit of their companies.
NECA, at a briefing in Lagos, said the lawmakers, who often relied on their interpretation of sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution, were abusing their oversight powers.
On April 2, 2012, the House Committee on Finance announced in an advertorial the appointment of a law firm to carry out audit investigation on tax matters in 180 companies in the private sector for the period 2006 to 2011.
The committee referred to sections 88 and 89 of the Constitution as the basis for its action and noted that the planned audit of the 180 firms was the first phase.
The Director-General, NECA, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, said the lawmakers had acted outside the ambit of their powers.
He argued that what the lawmakers were seeking to do was an executive responsibility currently discharged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had the statutory power to collect taxes and conduct audit and inspection of the books of tax payers.
"In the light of the foregoing, given our role as the voice of the private sector on socio-economic matters, including taxation, we will find it hard to encourage our companies to open their gates to the said consultant. Certainly, we will not be a party to flagrant abuse of rule of law," he said.
Oshinowo noted that the law did not permit the lawmakers to sub-delegate power of investigation to any other person or body, stressing that it was illegal to have appointed a firm to audit and inspect the books of private sector companies.
The Punch