Reps to probe tax remittances by commercial banks

[PeoplesDaily]

By Umar Muhammad Puma

The House of Representatives said it has opened a full scale investigation on all tax remittances by commercial banks to the Federal Government, as a result of alleged sharp practices by some of the 23 designated tax-collecting banks.

Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Abdulmumin Jibrin, (PDP Kano state) who confirmed the investigation of the banks over the weekend, said there was no option than to fully investigate them.

According to him, "investigation of some Federal Government agencies on internally generated revenue (IGR) has led to additional remittance of N100 billion.

"The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has however continued to defy the Committee on the presentation of the accounts of individual subsidiaries of the corporation.

"Our meeting with the banks' executives was meant to be an interactive session but now, we have officially opened up a full investigation based on facts and figures from documents available to us from  our consultants and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).

"We have earlier invited FIRS and they have availed us documents that will have far reaching effects on this exercise. Their presentation was quite revealing."

Jibrin noted that the dual roles of banks as tax-collecting agents for government as well as being tax payers created some gaps that must be bridged.

"As part of the banks' responsibility as tax collectors, the FIRS revealed to us that there has been a couple of challenges and instances where they had to delist or blacklist a bank from collecting tax on its behalf because of late remittances.

"What we discovered in our findings was that some banks deliberately engaged in delaying remittance.

"So, what they do, as against the guidelines of the FIRS, when they collect the taxes, was to delay the stipulated period of remitting it to the FIRS so that they can keep the money with them and use it for other purposes like trading and so on.

"Though, eventually they will remit the money to the government but they found it convenient to keep it beyond the stipulated period for their own advantage and to the detriment of the Federal government."

"It is the intention of the Committee to look critically into this, with a view of correcting these lapses.

"For instance, for such accounts, it is important that reconciliation be done because of allegation of unnecessary and inappropriate charges on such funds by banks".

While he conceded that banks contribute a lot to the economy, the lawmaker pointed out the importance of knowing if they are doing the right thing.

""This is because year after year, banks declare huge profits but we want to see what they are putting into government coffers as tax payers", he said.

While he solicited for the cooperation of all involved, Jibrin said that, "all the Committee is doing is against the backdrop of Federal government revenue generation, the budget deficit of over N1 trillion for this year and the vision of the Committee to improve the revenue base of the country.

"As we promised Nigerians, we want to look at every aspect where government is making money.

"Where government is making money, let us improve, where money is not been made but with opportunities, let us explore and open up such places.

"We need to know if the banks are paying to government what they are supposed to pay and if there is any instance of evasion, we will not hesitate expose it to Nigerians.

"The NNPC  has continued to be evasive, but the Committee will not relent because we are empowered by the constitution to carry out this exercise. NNPC is not beyond our capacity to handle, neither is it beyond the laws of this land.

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