The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, has recovered N 57.7 billion unremmitted tax revenue from banks.
The Head, Public Relations of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, stated in a statement, in Abuja, Sunday, that the federal government’s share of N48.7 billion had been paid into the Federation Account.
Mohammed 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-June, 2012 RMAFC had recovered N4.2 billion 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 Deposit Money Banks appointed by the FIRS and the 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 that 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.
“It is worth clarifying that RMAFC does not deal with individual tax payers directly but monitors collections by collaborating with sister agencies like the CBN, NNPC, DPR, Customs, FIRS to ascertain how much was actually collected and remitted into the Federation Account so as to minimize revenue leakages.
“In order to ensure transparency and accountability in revenue generation and remittance with a view to reducing revenue leakages, the Commission seeks further collaboration and cooperation of revenue generating and regulatory agencies, anti-corruption agencies as well as the civil society and the media,” it said.
