Uche Usim, Abuja
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), on Tuesday, said it has so far recovered about N57.7 billion unremitted revenues from collecting banks in its efforts to boost revenue accruals into the federation account.
According to the agency, the recovery followed intensive verification and reconciliation of revenue collections and remittances by designated banks engaged by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) between July 2012 and December 2015.
The Acting Chairman of the Commission, Umar Abba Gana, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists in Abuja, explained that N48.7 billion has already been recovered and remitted to the federation account, while the balance of N9.07 billion relating to withholding tax on dividend only, has been duly released to benefitting States’ Boards of Internal Revenue (SBIR).
Abba Gana also disclosed that in the course of the exercise (still ongoing), the Commission sought the intervention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the recoveries following the uncooperative stance exhibited by some revenue generating agencies and collecting banks.
He reiterated the Commission’s resolve to follow up on the outstanding balance of N16.4 billion liabilities established which demand notices were issued to banks but yet to be defrayed.
In an earlier exercise covering January 2008 – June 2012, RMAFC announced the recovery of N4.2 billion from the banks, promising that more recoveries would be made. Buoyed by the huge success recorded, the Commission, following the approval of the National Economic Council (NEC), launched the second phase of the exercise covering the period July 2012 – December 2015 in which the sum of N57.7 billion has been recovered thus far.