FCT- IRS under fire in Senate over N1bn remittance to FIRS

The management of the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT – IRS) came under fire in the Senate Thursday over alleged planned remittance of N1 billion to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as commission from projected N100 billion revenue collection.

The N1billion remittance came to the fore when the agency led by its executive chairman, Mallam Abdullahi Attah, appeared before the Senate Committee on FCT for approval of N8.5 billion 2021 budget proposal .

The agency had earlier appeared before the Senate Committee headed by Senator Abubakar Kyari (APC Borno North), on Tuesday for same purpose but told to re – appear Thursday on alleged discrepancies in budgetary proposals submitted.

Trouble for the agency started when the chairman of the committee, Senator Kyari asked Mallam Abdullahi Attah to explain the N1 billion planned remittance to FIRS from projected revenue generation in 2021.

The FCT – IRS chairman in his response said the planned remittance as done on yearly basis, is for payment of salaries of 117 FIRS staff who are collaborating with the agency for aggressive revenue generation and collection.

“Out of the entire 130 operatives of the agency, 117 of them are from the FIRS who must be taken care of,” he said.

Angered by the submission, the committee chairman wondered why the agency since its creation about four years ago, has not recruited enough staff to drive its revenue collections.

Joining the chairman in condemning the practice, members of the committee such as Senators Sani Musa (APC Niger East), Sam Egwu (PDP Ebonyi North), Smart Adeyemi (APC Kogi West) and Tolu Odebiyi (APC Ogun West), described it as unacceptable.

Sam Egwu in taking up the embattled FCT – IRS boss, said: “The N1 billion being remitted to FIRS by your agency is nauseating and must be stopped.

“If you don’t have enough men to collect the revenue for you, carry out recruitment exercise for that purpose. Why must you be paying people who are already being taken care of elsewhere salary wise?” he asked.

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