By Dipo Olowookere
A tax liabilities recovery exercise carried out by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC) has led to the discovery of over N115 billion being tax liabilities established against Federal and States’ Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs) as well as Local Government Councils across the nation.
It was gathered that all the states, LGCs and other agencies so far covered have passionately pleaded for waiver of penalty and interest totalling N24 billion comprising N9.75 billion as penalty and N14.3 billion as interest respectively.
A statement signed by spokesman of RMAFC, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, revealed that commission was able to establish the total sum of N115.8 billion as tax liabilities in the first phase of the exercise covering the period between 2005 and 2015 spread across 30 states of the federation.
It was disclosed that Adamawa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Katsina and Kebbi States were given a clean bill of health as they were bereft of any tax liabilities.
At the end of the exercise, which is 90 percent completed, an additional sum of N40 billion is expected to be realized.
In the course of the exercise, it was discovered that some Federal Government agencies domiciled in the states were not remitting Pay As You Earn (PAYE) to the state governments thus depleting their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base.
In the same vein, RMAFC also called on the Federal Government to reimburse some of the state governments that executed Federal Government projects in their states so as to enhance their revenue profile.
The agency also urged states like Bauchi, Cross River, Edo, Enugu and Rivers which were yet to participate in the exercise to do so in the spirit of equity and fair play since they continue to enjoy the proceeds of tax remitted by their counterparts.
