The Senate on Thursday commenced a probe of unauthorised spending of N567 billion allegedly collected as tax by both the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) between January 2005 and July 2015.

The probe is the aftermath of a petition by a non-governmental organisation, Legislative Watch, sent to Senate President Bukola Saraki on August 13, 2015 and referred to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.

According to a document obtained from the Federal Ministry of Finance which was presented to the committee by the petitioner, the average monthly tax revenue collected by the NCS is N2.5 billion. If the allegation is true, the total amount held back by NCS between January 2005 and July 2015 stands at N315 billion.

In the same vein, the document showed that the average monthly realisable revenue of FIRS is N2 billion, implying that a whopping sum of N252 billion was withheld by FIRS during the same period.
This put the total amount collected by both agencies during the period at N567 billion.

The Executive Secretary of Legislative Watch, Ngozi Ihuoma, alleged that the amount represented seven percent of tax collected which was paid to the NCS and four percent paid to the FIRS respectively during the period.

Ihuoma further alleged that the two agencies deducted the sum from the amount collected on behalf of the federal government without any recourse to the National Assembly for appropriation as required by the constitution.

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http://monitor9ja.com/2015/08/senate-probes-alleged-illegal-spending-of-n567bn-by-customs-firs/

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