…Military received $600 million dollars to guard pipeline
Fact emerged on how Federal Inland Revenue Services lost at least N216.92 billion due to tax wavers and exemptions granted to individuals and Institutions.
This was discovered in report submitted and considered to the National Conference by the Conference Committee on Public Finance which was chaired by former governor of Kebbi State, Senator Adamu Aliero.
The report also indicated that part the challenges facing the Federal Inland Revenue Services(FIRS) is the lack of accountability on the usage of tax collected.
According to the report, for example in 2012 and 2013 , FIRS lost N203.36 billion, in companies income taxes and N13.56billion in education tax were lost.
The report also stated that, the total crude oil lost for both upstream and downsteam pipelines losses for the period 2009-2011 amounted to $11.888 billion. “This is in spite of $600 million dollars that was spent on military security to guard the oil and gas facilities,” it noted.
Already the Conference had on Tuesday passed some of the recommendations of the committee on Public Finance.
Part of the recommendations is that henceforth, government agencies responsible for revenue generation and collection must comply with Section 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution which requires them to remit gross revenue in full to the Federation Account and resort to normal budget process of obtaining budget approval from the National Assembly to fund their operations.
Consequently, Conference resolved that all the sections of the enabling Acts of these departments and agencies of government that allow them to retain revenues and surplus to fund their operations be amended.
