FIRS Threatens to Shut NNPC Operation Over Tax Evasion

Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Tunde Fowler, on Tuesday, January 19, said the operation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC,  may be shut-down  over tax evasion.

Fowler said FIRS has the constitutional powers to shut-down operations of any government agency over the offense, which NNPC was found to be committing through its subsidiary company, Duke Oil Limited.

This was just as the Nigeria Customs Service said it has no record of oil import by Trafigura Nigeria Limited, despite having records of the company’s total export of 12.5 million metric tonnes under the swap arrangement with the NNPC.

The FIRS Boss, who was responding to question posed by the Zakari Mohammed-led House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating oil swap agreements entered by NNPC, said the laws allow the service to shut-down such erring agencies and to report them to EFCC for prosecution, until all outstanding taxes were paid.

The chairman told the committee that FIRS was not even aware of the existence of the company until the invitation by the committee was extended to them, which cumulatively paid N26.5 million taxes since its inception in Nigeria.

He said upon the receipt of the committee’s invitation, seeking details of some companies, including Duke Oil Limited, the FIRS went into research and found out its existence owned by NNPC with its registration in Panama back in 1989.

On his part, Assistant-Comptroller General of Customs (ACG) in charge of port operations, Andrew Sule told the committee that the service was not aware of any swap deals by NNPC with any company.

He said the Nigeria Customs only records crude oil exports and imports by companies, without having knowledge of the status of such activities by the oil companies.