By SINL Reporter
The Senate committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Thursday berated the management of the FCT Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over planned remittance of N1 billion to Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as commission from projected N50billion revenue collection.
This followed the appearance of the management led by its Executive Chairman, Mr. Abdullahi Attah, before the Senate Committee on FCT for approval of the N8.5billion 2021 budget proposal.
Indeed, the Attah-led team ran into troubled waters when the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abubakar Kyari (APC, Borno North), demanded explanation from Attah on the N1billion planned remittance to FIRS from projected revenue generation in 2021.
According to Attah, 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.
Dissatisfied with Attah’s submission, the Committee Chairman wondered “Are you saying that the N1billion remitted to the FIRS from the N50billion generated last year was for payment of salaries of the 117 FIRS?
The chairman was surprised why the agency since its creation about four years ago has not recruited enough staff to drive its revenue collections.
“Being staff of FIRS, are they not on salary structure from the FIRS itself and is that the reason you are proposing the same in your 2021 budgetary projections?” he asked.
Meanwhile, the committee unanimously described the action by FCT-IRS as unacceptable.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the session, Attah said “the agency is like a baby that should be allowed to crawl first before walking let alone running”.
