Road Construction: FIRS Faults N2.59tn Tax Credit Scheme

The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacheus Adedeji, on Wednesday in Abuja, faulted the three-year-old N2.59tn Tax Credit Scheme introduced by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for road construction across the country.

This is as one of the critical executors of the Tax Credit Scheme, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, cleared the air on a $3.3bn loan facility secured for the Central Bank of Nigeria for the stabilisation of Naira in the foreign exchange market.

The indifference of the FIRS Chairman to N2.59tn Tax Credit Scheme introduced through Executive Order 7 of 2021 by the Buhari-led government came to the fore during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Finance along with the Chief Financial Officer of NNPCL, Umar Ajiya.

The Senator Sani Musa-led committee had invited the two officials to shed light on implementation of the scheme vis – a vis , the poor state of federal roads across the country.

While the NNPCL Chief Financial Officer, raised the hope of the committee members that the scheme is helping in refixing of dilapidated roads across the six geo-political zones in the country with N664bn spent so far, the FIRS boss said the scheme was unlawful and should be discontinued.

Adedeji said, “The mandate of FIRS lumped with execution of Tax Credit Scheme for road construction, is to access, collect tax and remit it into the federation account and not to appropriate it for any purpose through executive order.

“It is not the duty of FIRS and NNPCL to be paying contractors. The Ministry of Works should be in line with its core mandate, allowing to award road contracts and pay for them.

“The scheme, to some people, serves as faster way for  road reconstruction or rehabilitation across the country, but we should stop increasing speed towards wrong direction.

“As a way of stopping the wrong approach, FIRS and CBN are holding meeting with the Ministry of Works Friday this week, where stock would be taken of what we have done through the scheme and thereafter, to the right path.

“We should, in a nutshell, not continue in the wrong trajectory.”

Impressed by his submission, the Chairman of the Committee, Musa, said relevant provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended), are against the scheme because monies NNPCL and FIRS are being made to spend on  roads through tax credit, supposed to be remitted into consolidated revenue fund.

“We are waiting for the outcome of the meeting of the three agencies involved in the scheme before deciding on how to help the present government to correct mistakes of the past,’ he said.

On the $ 3.3 billion loan facility, NNPCL informed the committee members that it was secured to support CBN to suppress FOREX volatility.

He said, “$2.2bn had already been secured for the apex bank, while the balance of $1.05bn would be credited to the apex bank before the end of the month.”