The House of Representatives,Thursday,said the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation NNPC was involved in series of deduction of petroleum profit tax from its payment of tax into the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
They also revealed that many government agencies are involved in self assessment of their income tax as against the express provisions of the nation’s tax laws.
The panel chairman , Hon.Almustapha Aliyu and other committee members made the discovery while engaging with the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS Mr Mohammed Nami appeared before them.
But, the tax agency informed the panel that its role is purely the collection of revenue for government and not keeping records of how the monies are expended.
The committee members said that the FIRS should further investigate companies and agencies involved in deduction of tax payment to the government.
A member of the Committee Hon.Benjamin Kalu (Abia, APC) queried the deductions as contained in a document provided saying that some government agencies may have been involved in racketeering.
Panel members also said that the figure for subsidy payment is outrageous and the government should abolish the subsidy regime and channel the funds to other productive sectors.
Another member of the probe panel Hon. Sergius Ogun (Edo, PDP) said that “from the records it is obvious that the government is paying for what the citizens are not consuming in Nigeria.”