In a move to recoup over $1 trillion in unpaid taxes by oil multinationals, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Ventures partners, the Federal Government has begun a tax audit of the corporation and international oil companies (IOCs).

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), which confirmed the tax audit yesterday, maintained that the NNPC had already subjected itself and its books for the audit.

NNPC, in a statement yesterday, quoted the Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler, as disclosing that his agency had received part of the needed documents from the corporation and also commended it for subjecting itself to tax audit as a responsible corporate citizen.

He gave the commendation when he received the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru, and his management team at the FIRS Revenue House in Abuja. The Federal Government had earlier said that it lost over $1 trillion revenue to tax evasion by multinational companies over a period of time.

Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents last Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. He said the FEC approved a memo for Multilateral Competence Agreement and the Exchange of Country by Country Report in order to give the government a better grip on its tax laws and prevent tax evasion by multinational companies.

Fowler also thanked the NNPC for the cooperation it has extended to FIRS on tax matters over the years, stressing that the two organisations were children of the same father committed to generating revenue for the Federal Government.

Responding, Baru expressed NNPC’s readiness to collaborate with the FIRS, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other government agencies to generate revenue for the Federal Government.

He suggested the setting up of a committee between the NNPC and FIRS to update the corporation’s tax obligation up to 2015, assuring that all its joint venture partners would align themselves in order to ensure that the right taxes are paid.

•Text courtesy of New Telegraph. Photo shows FIRS Chairman Tunde Fowler.

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