House of Representatives has threatened to arrest 10 bank chief executive officers over their failure to attend its investigative hearing on tax remittance on Monday.
The bank chiefs are: First City Monument Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Keystone Bank Limited, Heritage Bank Limited and Zenith Bank Plc. Others are: Ecobank Plc, City Bank; Stanbic IBTC Plc and Enterprise Bank Limited.
The House said that the bank chief have till Wednesday (tomorrow) to appear before it or risk being arrested.
Mr. Kabir Mashi, acting chairman of the agency who appeared before the committee, said N83 billion was the total sum expected from the banks, but only N77 billion was remitted.
Mashi, who also said that FIRS audited 23 banks within the period, told the committee that the N83 billion targets was not met because some banks delayed in remitting funds they collected on behalf of the agency.
Following the development, the committee invited the CEOs of 21 banks that collected tax revenue on behalf of FIRS to ascertain whether they remitted what they collected to government coffers or not.
Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, chairman of the committee investigating tax remittances by banks in the country, said that “the CEOs of these 10 banks, out of the 21 we invited, did not appear. This is a serious national assignment because we are looking at how to plug the leakages in our revenue collection system.”
“The CEOs should appear unfailingly on Wednesday or we shall not hesitate to issue a bench warrant for their arrest.”
He added that the investigation was restricted to tax collection and remittances by the banks and not their entire operation.
Jibrin added, “All over the world, banks are under tight scrutiny by the parliament because of their strategic role in the economy, and of course, tax matters are treated with utmost importance.
“As we beam our searchlight on tax remittances by banks, the heavens will not fall.”
Forms were distributed to the representatives of 11 other banks that appeared at the hearing.
They were required to fill in the taxes their financial institutions paid as business concerns and those they collected as agents of the FIRS so as to assist the committee with the investigation.
Besides paying taxes to government as business concerns, some of the banks also collect taxes on behalf of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Last Monday, the FIRS had informed the committee that banks remitted N77 billion in taxes between 2006 and 2012.
