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| The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Babatunde Fowler, |
The Federal Government has said it will take over
30 properties linked to companies that have not been paying taxes.
The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue
Service, Mr Babatunde Fowler, stated that out of the 2,000 properties of
corporate entities identified early this year that were not paying taxes, 561
of them had come forward to make payments.
Fowler said 116 companies claimed not to own any
of the properties, adding that 30 of them had actually written to the FIRS that
the properties in question did not belong to them.
He said based on the law, the properties would be
taken over by the government.
He said, “We have certain private organisations
that own properties in Nigeria and have not been paying any taxes.
“So we took a review of all properties and we
have about 2,000 that were under corporate ownership and those corporate
entities have not paid any tax.
“By law, where a company has not filed or paid
any taxes, we have to use estimated assessment based on turnover.
“Out of the 2,000, about 569 have come forward to
pay taxes. We have done an assessment of N8bn, while the others have asked for
payment by instalment.
“Also, 116 claimed not to own those properties.
30 of them have put it in writing claiming that they do not own the properties
in question.
“We have written accordingly to the
Ministry of Finance and we believe that the government will take those
properties over in line with the law.”
He spoke in Abuja during a media briefing with the Minister of Finance, Mrs
Zainab Ahmed.
Also present at the briefing were the
Director-General, Debt Management Office, Mrs Patience Oniha; the acting
Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Mary Uduk; the
Comptroller General of Customs, Hameed Alli; and the Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Finance, Mahmoud Dutse.
The Minister of Finance, Ahmed, said between May
29, 2015, and December this year, the Federal Government had paid over N6.11tn
to settle inherited debts and liabilities to states, contractors, and joint
venture partners, among others.
She noted that the inherited debts were paid
despite the revenue shortfall experienced by the Federal Government within the
last three years.
Giving a breakdown of the amount paid, the
finance minister said that $5.4bn (about N1.65tn) was used to pay state
governments for the refund of excess deductions made from the Paris Club debt,
while $6.8bn (about N2.07tn) was used to settle Joint Venture Cash Call
obligations.
She also said that contractors/Export Expansion
Grants debt totalling N1.9tn had been settled, adding that about N488bn spent
by state governments on road projects had also been paid.
In addition, she said that as part of the Federal
Government’s efforts to ensure all pensioners get their entitlements, the
ministry had released N54bn to settle outstanding pension arrears in 2014, 2015
and 2016, as well as paid pension claims up to March 2017.
She also said that over N571m had been paid as
gratuity to 175 Biafra war-affected retired police officers.
In the area of expenditure performance, the
finance minister said that in 2018, despite the revenue
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