Federal ministries, agencies owe FIRS N60bn

Taiwo Adisa, Abuja - 17.01.2008

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday uncovered the debt of over N60 billion being owed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by federal ministries, parastatals and agencies between 1994 and 2004.

The revelation was made at a public hearing by the committee headed by Senator Ahmed Lawan where it was revealed that ministries, departments and agencies have refused to remit Value Added Taxes, Pay as You Earn, withholding taxes and others collected on behalf of the FIRS.

The Senate committee also queried the decision of the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to issue tax waivers to some organisations, a decision the committee said aggravated the arrears of debts owed FIRS by government agencies.

The Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who gave a breakdown of the outstanding tax debts, said “these are taxes collected from contractors and you innocent workers. We will not accept that the penalties or interests were waived. The waiver was signed by the (then) minister of state for finance after he left office?”

The hearing was attended by directors of agencies and parastatals.
While reacting to allegations by the Director of Large Taxes of the FIRS, Mr. Elias Sulu, that the last administration on May 23, 2007 approved a controversial “debt forgiveness,” Lawan said that the submission was wrong as there was no FEC meeting on the quoted date.

The director of large taxes had said that the N1.8 billion owed by the FHA was scaled down to about N807 million after the directive by the government.

Giving a breakdown of the amount owed by the FHA, Sulu said “Withholding Tax totaled N465,994,703.22; VAT, N203,351,193.98; PAYE, N14,613,739.00; interest on WHT, N83,879,046.58; and PAYE, N2,630,473.02.

He said, “N60 billion was the total sum of liabilities owed by government agencies. They pleaded for waivers and government approved that we should grant waivers on penalties but that interests should remain.”

The acting Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority, Mr. Felix Koyenikan, also told the committee that he inherited a liability of over N10 billion when he came on board in 2007.

He said that some agencies had, however, started paying up. The Central Bank of Nigeria which has an outstandingN327,919,645.90 was not allowed to present its case as the committee accused the bank of lack of proper representation.