The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts has pledged its support for the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), as well as other revenue generation agencies, to enhance their operational efficiencies.
Chairman of the committee, Oluwole Oke, gave the assurance, Tuesday, when Acting Executive Chairman of the Service, Mr Haruna Abdullahi, appeared before the panel on various issues raised against the agency, referred to the committee by the larger house.
This came as the Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service disclosed that it had introduced Electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (E-TCC) to improve service delivery and checkmate activities of fraudsters who could forge such documents.
Abdullahi at the session told the committee that the E-TCC had fortified the process thereby making it difficult for anyone to forge such document because of the introduction of QR CODE, a move he said would help the Service not to be short-changed as well as boost revenue generation for the FCT administration.
He further explained that Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) was a document being issued by the Tax Authority to certify that an individual or a business was compliant with the appropriate requirements as stated by law within a stipulated period of time, usually for the three preceding years.
“Whenever the relevant tax authority is of opinion that tax assessed on the income of a person for the three years immediately preceding the current year of assessment has been fully paid or that no tax is due on income or that the person is not liable to tax for any of those three years, it shall issue a tax clearance certificate to the person within two weeks of demand for the certificate by that person, or give reasons for the denial”, he stated.
Chairman of the committee, Oke urged the general or taxpayers to report any violation of the law concerning issuance of TCC to the management of FCT-IRS, advising the Service to avail the parliament with information on areas it could assist it for effective operations.
