Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), RMAFC, has recovered N57.7 billion unremitted tax revenue from deposit money banks (DMBs).
The head, public relations of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, said in a statement, in Abuja that the federal government’s share of N48.7 billion had been paid into the federation account.
He added that the balance of N9. 7 billion, which relates to withholding tax of dividends, has also been paid to the beneficiary state governments.
In an earlier exercise covering January 2008 to June 2012, RMAFC had recovered N4.2bn from the banks, promising that more recoveries would be made.
The commission insisted that its on-going monitoring and verification exercise on tax collections by DMBs appointed by the federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service was in order as it falls within its mandate as contained in Section 6(1) of the RMAFC Act, 2004, which provides that the commission shall have powers to, among others monitor the accruals to and disbursement of revenue from the federation account.
RMAFC said it was not a tax authority but a revenue watchdog that monitors revenue collections by revenue generating entities like the FIRS, Customs, DPR, NNPC and others that remit directly into the Federation Account.
The revenue streams that accrue into the Federation Account under the watch of RMAFC include tax (withholding tax and vat), royalties, signature bonuses, custom duties, tariff, etc.
According to the commission, the clarification became necessary following media reports that challenged the legality of the exercise by vested interests.
Vanguard
