January 31, (THEWILL) – Senate President Ahmad Lawan, has directed the Finance Committees of the National Assembly to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Finance, with a view to considering an amendment to the recently signed Finance Act 2022, in order to forestall avoidable loss of revenues.
Lawan stated this at a meeting with the revenue generating agencies of the federal government at the Senate Wing of the National Assembly complex.
The Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (rtd), caused a stir at the meeting when he raised the alarm that the Finance Act, passed last month, incapacitated the NCS and other revenue generating agencies apart from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) from collecting revenues.
Ali said: “Section 22 of the Finance Act 2022 seeks to amend the Federal Inland Revenue Service law Section 68 (1), (2), (3), (4) and (6) by allowing the Act to take precedent over any other laws with regards to the administration of taxes, assessment, accounting, collection and enforcement of taxes and levies due to the federal government and the federation of Nigeria.
“When the law was signed, it did not state clearly, the extent and scope of the taxes and levies in question. We are aware that the taxes and levies under the responsibilities of the FIRS are income tax, personal income tax, capital gain tax, VAT and so on.
“However, the amendment is so wide and open that we in the Nigerian Customs Service took it that it had hindered our ability to collect levies and other collections.
“Our understanding of the provisions is that all other laws, which mandated us to collect, are inconsistent with the new Act, then they are voided. This means that the law that mandates us to collect, as revenue generating agencies, are voided completely.
“This means that we do not have the responsibilities to collect levies. If we don’t have the responsibilities to collect, what are we going to discuss here.
“It shall be an offence for any person to carry out the functions of administering, assessment, accounting or enforcement of taxes or levies due to the Federal Government of Nigeria, unless authorised by the Ministry of Finance with the approval of the National Assembly.
“We have consulted with lawyers and the conclusion is that the Act is confusing and if other revenue generating agencies decided to act on the provisions, they may decide not to collect duties and levies.”
However, the Senate President wondered why the officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance were not in attendance at the meeting.
He said the nation’s apex legislative institution would have no choice, but to amend the law to prevent any revenue loss to the federation account.
Lawan said: “I wonder why the Ministry of Finance is not here because we need their intervention now.
“Their presence here would have provided some clarifications. We took it for granted that since it was an executive bill, that there were some engagements among the agencies of the federal government.
“We also called for public hearing so that we could x-ray it. You are saying that you don’t have the legal mandate to collect taxes and it is a scary revelation.
“The Senate Committee on Finance and the Ministry of Finance and other agencies would look at the Act. If it is established beyond reasonable doubts that we need to amend it, we will do so without delay.
“It will be the fastest amendment because we need you to collect more monies for the federal government.”
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, nevertheless clarified that the section cited by Ali was not targeted at the NCS.
Adeola said: “What necessitated that singular act was as a result of the issue between the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) and the FIRS.
“There were clashes between them from time to time. Some activities of RMFAC were not in tandem with the Act that established it.
“We discovered that the only way that we can make their roles explicit is through the Finance Act concerning the assessment and accounting of taxes.
“We discovered that RMFAC personnel were going to agencies to audit their tax accounts which is not part of their responsibilities based on the law that established RMFAC.
“The only agency saddled with that responsibility is the FIRS. That was what that law tends to address. We are ready to look into it again if other revenue generating agencies believe that it has hindered them from performing their responsibilities and we would amend it accordingly.”NASS
