FIRS, EFCC Jointly Recover N29 Billion VAT

Tunde Fowler, the chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has revealed on Tuesday that its agency in conjunction with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recently recovered the sum of N29 billion Withholding Tax and Value Added Tax from banks and other financial institutions in the country from November 2017 to March 2018.

The FIRS Chairman said this while on a courtesy visit to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

Fowler revealed that the nation is looking inwards to raise its economic prosperity and so, would not tolerate tax defaulters.

“There are some issues of non-remittance of Withholding Tax, Value Added Tax and Personal Income Tax. The EFCC has shown support before. When tax defaulters are invited to your office (EFCC), we see result. I don’t know how you do it but we see the result. Recently, two banks came forward to comply on their own.”

“I think that they must have heard words. We want joint assistance with the EFCC, especially now that VAIDS is over, to make sure that all tax defaulters get the lawful treatment.”

Similarly, the Acting Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, assured that the anti-graft commission is ready to make more efforts to bring culprits to book.

Magu said that “people are in a hurry to collect taxes but are reluctant to remit them. It is very distressing. We may put a team together to ensure that whatever taxes collected by anybody is remitted and on time. I also want to congratulate you (FIRS) because of the change in the narrative.”

“There is no doubt that there is a real improvement in our tax system. We will collaborate. We had done this in the past when we had a joint training in Kaduna. We will make sure that we do anything you ask us to do as far as it is lawful”, he said.