Nigerian Reps committee calls for remittance of taxes to close revenue gap 

The Chairman, Public Accounts Committee of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Hon Wole Oke, says there is the need for Nigerian agencies remit their taxes to government account in order to close the revenue gap and generate more revenue for the country.

The chairman stated this following the query by the Auditor General of the Federation,that the revenue due to Nigeria has over the years dwindled.

“The Auditor General’s pursuant to section eighty-five of the constitution reviewed the finances, the books, the account of the federal government and the federation account and came to the observation that revenue accruable to Nigeria through NNPC, through DPR, through FIRS, through Nigeria Custom, through Mining Cadastral have over the years dwindled. That they have not collected enough revenue and that the parliament should find out why. And the minister of Finance also agreed that the only reason why Nigeria continues to borrow is because we have revenue gaps. So, how do we close the gap? It’s for the parliament to oversight,” Hon Oke said.

He said that not paying duties is killing the Nigerian economy.

He pointed out that if all the dues and taxes owed Nigeria is paid, Nigeria would not have to borrow as much as it is borrowing because the only reason why it is borrowing is because of lack of remittances.

Mr. Oke also said that the Public Accounts Committee has observed that most revenues collected were not paid.

“The parliament is not FIRS, the parliament cannot usurp the function of FIRS, what we can do is if we discover any abnormally, we bring FIRS into it to chase the taxpayer and collect the taxes. Ditto customs,” he said.