Tax collection: House grills FCT minister

The House of Represen­tatives yesterday vented its anger on the Minis­ter of Federal Capital Territo-ry (FCT), Mohammed Bello, over the recent agreement with the Federal Inland Rev­enue Service (FIRS) to collect taxes for the capital territory.

 

Recall that on Wednesday last week, the House sum­moned the minister to ex­plain why the FCT Admin­istration went into such an agreement when there is an Act establishing the FCT In­land Revenue Service.

 

The summon was after a debate on a motion by Rep Abdulrazak Sa’ad Namdas (APC Adama-wa).

 

At the session, members of the committee chaired by Rep Herman Hembe (APC Benue) told the minister that his action was a ‘breach of the law’ for the FCTA to relinquish such a role to the FIRS.

 

The lawmakers noted that FIRS, as presently consti­tuted, could not collect up to 50 percent taxes across the country and wondered why it should be saddled with ad­ditional responsibility by the FCTA.

 

The committee Chairman, therefore, demanded the minister to provide the full documents on the agreement with the FIRS and the taxes collections by the service be­fore the agreement.

 

The committee would set up a 5-man panel to further interface with the ministry on the matter.

 

In his response, FCT Min­ister Bello, said all that the ministry did was to continue with what it met on ground as FIRS had been collecting taxes for the FCTA long be­fore he came into office.