Reps' panel threaten oil firms
From John-Abba Ogbodo, Mathias Okwe and Terhemba Daka, Abuja
THE Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) yesterday swooped on some Federal Government agencies in Abuja to recover about N72.764 billion tax liabilities the agencies are owing the federation.
The sum is part of about N260 billion tax funds being owed the Federation by the government agencies and corporate organisations like banks and oil companies.
The sum owed represents various forms of taxes collected on behalf of the government, but which they failed to remit to the FIRS for onward transfer to the Federation Account.
Some of the agencies raided yesterday included the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which is owing about N568 million; the National Assembly, owing about N306m.
The raid follows directives recently by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, to (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to improve on their collections to make up for the shortfalls in their first quarter, 2009 collection targets.
The raid is being led by a task force comprising FIRS officials and security operatives to ensure enforcement and under the supervision of the Director of FCT/Special Tax Office, Abuja, Peter Olayemi.
Yesterday's raid yielded positive returns as the NNPC committed itself to paying up the sum of N200 million of its outstanding liability, with an undertaking to offset the balance in the next three months.
Also, at the Federal Housing Authority, (FHA), the agency undertook to pay the sum of N100 million in the next two days, with a promise to clear the outstanding before the end of the year.
An Assistant Director, Tax, in the Large Tax Office of the FIRS in Abuja, Mrs. Camilla Chuta, who led the team to the National Assembly, Nigeria Universities Commission (NUC) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development disclosed that the management of the National Assembly is owing N306 million made up of withholding tax of N22.43 million, Value added Tax (VAT) of N941,259 and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) of N188 million.
On the other hand, the NUC whose staff became unruly and recalcitrant during the exercise, owes over N513 million made up of withholding tax of N253 million, value added tax of N97 million and pay as you earn of N163 million.
Furthermore, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development failed to remit withholding tax of N283 million, VAT of N68 million and PAYE of N93 million for the period under review.
In the course of the visit, the National Assembly officials promised to meet with officials of the FIRS for final reconciliation before effecting payment. In the same vein, the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture requested for time to enable them sort out the issues before payment. However, officials of NUC said that the commission had not defaulted in its tax payment even when they reluctantly agreed that they may be owing some tax arrears after all.
Olayemi explained that the tax enforcement had become imperative because of the uncooperative posture of many defaulting MDAs, which had deducted these taxes but refused to remit the proceeds to the detriment of the smooth running of government.
In a related development, the House of Representatives has threatened to ask the NNPC to bar some oil companies from doing business in the country if they continued to avoid rendering account of their transactions in the oil sector.
The threat came through the House committee investigating the activities of the nation's oil sector since 1999 when the panel met with stakeholders in the sector yesterday in the National Assembly. The committee had invited 29 stakeholders in the industry, including past former Group Managing Directors (GMDs) to a meeting to reconcile some issues discovered by the panel in the course of its assignment. But a member of the committee, John Halims Agoda, raised an observation, after the chairman of the committee, Igo Aguma had taken a roll call, that of the 29 oil firms and stakeholders summoned by the panel, 14 were absent. He expressed displeasure over the development and urged the committee to take exception to it.
In his ruling on the matter, Igo Aguma condemned the action of the stakeholders who failed to appear and reiterated the commitment of the members to end the assignment as soon as possible. He further said that if the affected stakeholders failed to appear on the last day of the interaction which is today, the committee might be compelled to make a recommendation that NPPC should no longer have any business with them.
"If they continue to carry on this way, refusing to honour invitation from parliament for them to account for their transactions in the nation's oil industry, we will have no option than to recommend that NNPC should no longer have business with them based on the fact that they have refused to give account to the Nigerian people on their activities," he declared.
The committee said there was a difference between the figures given by the NNPC and the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) on the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividend.
The committee said while the former gave the figure of $4.4 million, the latter gave the sum of $12 million as dividend. Consequently, the committee raised a sub-committee to establish the following: the amount remaining as outstanding and where the money is domiciled, how much was ploughed back and who authorised such action.
The committee, at the session with one of the oil companies, MRS Oil and Gas, said the company short-changed Federal Government to the tune of N14 million in some transactions done between 2002 and 2003. The committee relied on a report which they called Buba report done during the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and added that the company lifted crude within the period at local price and sold it at international price with a difference of about N14 million. The acting managing director of the firm, Amina Maina, said she was shocked by the claim stressing that all the transactions done by the company were in line with due process.
Pressed further, she said she had not sighted the report anywhere and pleaded with the committee for time to tender all the documents of the transactions of the company since it started business in 1996. She also told the committee that the company had sold oil to Benue Cement Company in Gboko, Benue State and some textile companies in Kaduna.
The committee gave her up till next week to produce the documents.
Also yesterday, the chamber began the process of electoral reform by sending to the committee on electoral matters, a bill seeking to amend the extant electoral Act. Most members who spoke on the bill were of the position that the amendment was over due but cautioned that the relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution relating to the functions and constitution of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) be first amended.
Following the effect of the oil price fall in the international market and the consequences, the Federal Government is considering reviewing the 2009 Appropriation Act.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Alhaji Nasiru Arab, who gave the hint in Abuja at the first clerks to the National Assembly's management lecture series for the year 2009, said the drop in the price of oil has caused the government a devastating blow making it difficult to meet up with its projected revenue generation.
Arab, who spoke on the topic: "Parliamentary management and the global economic recession: Challenges and opportunities" noted that Nigeria, as a part of the global village, has had a 'pinch' of the world economic downturn.
"Government revenue in particular suffered a serious set-back with the drastic drop in crude oil price from about $147 per barrel in July 2008 to about $41 per barrel in April 2009. It is only recently that the price of crude oil rose to about $71 per barrel.
"The drop in the price of oil in the international market has no doubt affected government expenditure that the government is already thinking of reviewing the 2009 budget", he stated.
