Deputy Governor (Corporate Affairs) of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Mr. Edward Lamatek Adamu has failed to explain the discrepancies over unremitted $3.3 billion from $21.3billion collected by the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) as Foreign Tax in 2015.
The development precipitated the Senate Committee on Public Accounts to slam the Central Bank of Nigeria with query over unremitted $3.3billion Foreign Tax.
As the Deputy CBN Governor struggled to explain, he posited that the $3.3 billion was not missing or unremitted, but the variation in the exchange rate at the time caused the differential.
However, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts having been dissatisfied, queried the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over unremitted $3.3billion from the $21.3billion collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) as foreign Tax in 2015, insisting that the fund was missing.
The discrepancies had been raised by the Auditor-General of the Federation who issued a query to the CBN having taken cognizance of the Federal Inland Revenue Service’s remitted $21.3 billion as total sum of foreign Tax it collected in 2015 and domiciled in the Apex Bank with the record of $18 billion showing.
Against the background of the query, the Committee led by Senator Mathew Urhoghide took up the CBN management to explain the shortfall.
On the final analysis, the Committee ordered him and other top officials of the Apex Bank to report back to it on Monday with required documents on the alleged variations in exchange rate.
Addressing journalists after the stormy session, Senator Uroghide confirmed; while the record of FIRS showed $21.3 billion, the record of the Apex bank showed $18 billion.
“When CBN was asked about why the differences in the amount, the Apex hinged its argument on exchange rate, upon which officials of the bank are directed to come up with supporting documents if they have.”
“There were 13 queries raised concerning CBN. Today, they have explained some while some are yet to be sufficiently explained , particularly the $3.3billion difference it has from the $21.3billion foreign taxes remitted by FIRS”,he said.
Meanwhile, the Committee has slated Tuesday next week for appearance of some other highly rated government establishments like the Nigerian Army, the Police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) over alleged unaudited Accounts over the years.
