Contractors owe govt N100bn in tax liabilities - Adeosun

 The Federal Government on Tuesday said about N100bn has been discovered as tax revenue shortfall by contractors between 2012 and 2017.

The figure was given by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in a statement issued by her Special Adviser, Media and Communications Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde.

The minister, in the statement, said she had ordered vendors of Ministries, Departments and Agencies to display their Tax Identification Numbers on their invoices before they make payments.


She said already, the Federal Government’s directive has been handed down to the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, for implementation

Adeosun said the order was part of the government efforts to block revenue leakages.

The finance minister in the memo entitled, “Compliance with tax payments by Federal Government vendors,” disclosed that persistent leakages in revenue remittances by vendors was uncovered by the government’s Project Lighthouse, a system-wide revenue intelligence data warehouse.

The leakages, according to her, were due to the lack of TIN, particularly on Value Added Tax, Withholding Tax and other related inflows into the government coffers.

The minister said, “In order to address these lapses in the implementation of the 2017 budget as well as boost the revenue accruable to the government, all MDAs should be directed to insist that invoices submitted by vendors for payments must clearly state the TIN.

“This is to confirm tax compliance by relevant government vendors before payments are effected.”

She added that the directive to the government vendors is in compliance with the provisions of both the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Public Procurement Acts of 2007 respectively.

Adeosun noted that spot checks would be undertaken on MDAs to confirm their level of compliance with the directive. (Punch)