The office of the auditor general of the federation has disclosed that unauthorized waivers granted by both the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) cost the government several billions of naira in 2019.
The waivers were granted by FIRS and the NCS to some selected tax payers and importers as well as under remitting revenue collected to government during the 2019 financial year.
This is contained in the 2019 auditor general’s report marked AuGF/AR.2019/01 dated 18th August, 2021 signed by the auditor general of the federation, Mr. Adolphus Aguhughu submitted to the clerk to the national assembly.
The report said that the management of the FIRS only responded to two of the six audit queries issued to them by the office of the auditor general of the federation, while failing to respond to the remaining four queries.
It also said that the NCS failed to respond to all the 11 queries issued to them by the office of the auditor general as at the time of compiling and submitting the report to the national assembly.
It said further that audit also observed “from the review of waivers granted and other relevant records that the sum of N17,223,453.56 only being part of import duty due to the federation account during the 2019 financial year was granted as waivers to fourteen (14) staff of the ministry of foreign affairs at 50% rebate.
The report also stated that records from the federation account allocation committee revealed that some companies were granted tax waiver and penalties by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in contravention of existing government circulars.
It said that despite directives, the FIRS was only able to recovered the sum of N47.517 billion, while being unable to recover the balance of N23.703 billion which has been outstanding as at 23rd January, 2019.
The report said the executive chairman of the FIRS failed to give reasons why the sum of N23.703 billion was still outstanding, adding that he should be asked to provide the list of companies that failed to pay the amount due against them.
The report further said that “the anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system at the FIRS as it could lead to loss of revenue to the Federation Account as well as difficulty in funding the annual budget.
“The OAGF wants the outstanding amount recovered and remitted to the federation account, while evidence of the remittance should be forwarded to the public accounts committees of the national assembly or appropriate sanctions be imposed on the service.
According to the report, a review of Inflows into the federation account revealed that taxes paid through Paydirect owned by Interswitch showed details of tax payers such as Tax Identification Number (TIN) and amount, while taxes paid through Remitta, E-tax pay and eTranzact which were transferred to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directly did not reflect fully, details of the tax payers on the FIRS Web portal.
It said the executive chairman of FIRS should be requested to provide reasons for the inability of the CBN to disclose details such as TIN, name and amount of tax payers remitted directly to the pool account.
