The Senate through its Committee on Public Accounts queried the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) Wednesday on an unremitted $3.3billion from the $21.3billion collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) as foreign Tax in 2015.
Trouble came the way of the CBN with queries against it forwarded to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation that while FIRS recorded $21.3 billion as total sum of foreign Tax collected by it in 2015 and domiciled in the Apex Bank, CBN on the other hand recorded $18billion.
On the strength of the query, the committee led by Senator Mathew Urhoghide (PDP Edo South), took up the CBN management to explain the shortfalls which the apex bank’s deputy governor (Corporate Affairs) , Mr Edward Lamatek Adamu, couldn’t explain convincingly.
The deputy governor in his frantic effort to convince the committee that the shortfall of $3.3billion was not missing or unremitted, said variations in exchange rate during the time, resulted into the difference of amounts recorded by FIRS and CBN.
But dissatisfied with his explanation, the committee ordered him and other top officials of the Apex Bank to report back to it on Monday with required documents on the alleged variations in exchange rate.
Addressing journalists after the stormy session, Senator Uroghide said, “While the record of FIRS showed $21.3 billion, the record of apex bank showed $18 billion.
“When CBN was asked why the differences in the amount, the apex hinged its argument on exchange rate, upon which officials of the bank are directed to come up with supporting documents if they have.
“There were 13 queries raised concerning CBN. Today, they have explained some while some are yet to be sufficiently explained , particularly the $3.3billion difference it has from the $21.3billion foreign taxes remitted by FIRS,” he said.
Meanwhile, the committee has slated Tuesday next week for appearance of some other highly rated government establishments like the Nigerian Army, the Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) over alleged non-audited accounts over the years .
