House Of Reps Summons 24 Banks Over Un-remmited Funds

The House of Representatives Committee on Finance yesterday summoned the 24 commercial banks over their non-remittance of taxes collected on behalf of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

The FIRS had told the committee that the banks paid the N77bn out of N83bn they had collected. Acting Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Kabiru Mashi, who made the disclosure at an interactive session with the House of Representatives’ Committee on Finance, said that the FIRS had a signed collection agreement with the banks, where the “dos and don’ts” were clearly stated.

Mashi said: “On the information from the tax audit unit on companies’ taxes since 2006 till 2012, we have audited 23 banks, and through the audit, we have additional taxes of N83bn. “But so far, the total payment till date is N77bn. There are still some that are yet to pay because, may be they agreed on installmental payments.”

He, however, said that there were some delayed remittances from the designated banks, who acted as tax collecting agents, before paying in what they collected into the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s pool account.

The Chairman of the committee, Hon. Abdulmumini Jibrin (PDP-Kano), noted that the guidelines for collecting the money were not clear and summoned the chief executives officers of the 24 banks involved in tax collection to appear before the committee. Jibrin, however, assured that the appearance of the CEOs would not adversely affect the economy of the country.

“To this end, the committee is inviting the chief executives of the 24 banks to appear before it next Monday, May 20. “Let me say this before it ignites any kind of controversy. We are not putting them under any investigation, except proven otherwise. But they are coming here for an interactive session. It is important for me to clarify this: there is nothing sensitive with investigating banks.