By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacchaeus Adedeji, has faulted the N2.59trn Tax Credit Scheme introduced by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in 2021.
The scheme was meant for road construction across the country.
He stated this on Wednesday when the executors of the Tax Credit Scheme the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) gave details of the $3.3bn loan facility secured for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for stabilisation of Naira in the foreign exchange market.
The FIRS Chairman was not impressed with the N2.59trn Tax Credit Scheme introduced through Executive Order 7 of 2021 by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
Adedeji spoke when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance along with the Chief Financial Officer of NNPCL, Umoru Ajiya.
The Committee, chaired by Senator Sani Musa, had invited the FIRS and the NNPCL management to shed more light on the implementation of the scheme especially the terrible state of the Federal Roads across the country.
Ajiya, the NNPCL Chief Financial Officer, in his presentation, raised the hope of the committee members that the scheme was being properly implemented.
He said it was helping the Federal Government to fix dilapidated roads across the six geo-political zones in the country with N664bn spent so far.
When asked to speak on the scheme, Adedeji, the FIRS boss condemned it describing it as unlawful.
He urged the Federal Government to discontinue it.
He said, “The Mandate of FIRS lumped with the execution of Tax Credit Scheme for road construction, is to access, collect tax and remit it into the federation account and not to appropriate it for any purpose through executive order.
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“It is not the duty of FIRS and NNPCL to be paying contractors. The Ministry of Works should be in line with its core mandate, and be allowed to award road contracts and pay for them.
“To people, the scheme serves as a faster way for road reconstruction or rehabilitation across the country, but we should stop increasing speed towards the wrong direction.
“As a way of stopping the wrong approach, FIRS and the Central Bank of Nigeria are holding a meeting with the Ministry of Works on Friday (tomorrow).
“At the meeting, we are going to take stock of what had been done through the scheme and thereafter we will toe the right path. We should in a nutshell, not continue in the wrong trajectory,” he said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa, expressed satisfaction with the FIRS boss’s presentation.
He said relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), are against the scheme.
Musa said this is because monies that the NNPC and FIRS are being made to spend on the roads through tax credits are supposed to be remitted into the consolidated revenue fund.
“We are waiting for the outcome of the meeting of the three agencies involved in the scheme, before deciding on how to help the present government to correct mistakes of the past,” he said.
*As NNPCL explains $3.3bn loan secured for CBN
On the $3.3bn loan facility, NNPCL informed the Committee members that it was secured to support CBN to suppress FOREX Volatility.
The agency said $2.2bn had already been secured for the apex bank while the balance of $1.05bn, would be credited to the apex bank before the end of the month.
