Reps warn FIRS against contempt of parliament over refusal to appear before it.
Mercy Adi
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee ( PAC)has expressed displeasure over the continued disregard shown by the chairman , Federal Inland Revenue service (FIRS), Mr. Zacch, to the invitations of the committee, adding that his actions amounted to contempt of parliament.
Rep. Bamidele Salam, Chairman, PAC, said this at the resumed investigative hearing of the revenue leakages in Abuja on Thursday.
The chairman, while reading the riot act against the FIRS, said that this is the fourth time the committee would be inviting the FIRS chairman but failed to show up.
According to him, in addition to writing him officially, “we have also made sure that such letters were delivered personally to his mail box and his WhatsApp number.”
“And we condemn and describe it as irresponsible and arrogant, and we tell him that there will be consequences if he continues this contempt of this parliament”, he said.
He also said that several letters had been written to him without responses, adding that the value-added tax that the federal government should be collecting on remittas had not been collected by FIRS.
He added that some VAT from the revenue collected by Remitta ought to have gone to the FIRS, but that they would rather add the VST together and share it with the CBN, Bank, and Remitta.
“by the time we finished our reconciliation, the money would be in hundreds of billions,” adding that this was what they were asking the FIRS to come and collect, but the service had refused to show up, he further said.
