The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye disclosed that the commission has forwarded the names of about 2,000 firms evading taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue Service for profiling and taxation.
Fielding questions from journalists at the end of a capacity building training for ICPC investigators on investigating Illicit Financial Flows in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chairman stated that the corporate entities were uncovered during investigations undertaken by the commission.
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He said, “Some of these entities are not registered and do not pay tax while others are registered but still do not pay tax. The ICPC has been able to recover significant amount in taxes for the government.
Speaking further during the workshop, the ICPC chairman stated that the capacity building programme would help investigators to track illicit financial flows, money laundering and other areas the government was losing revenue and recover such funds.
He said, “The loss of revenue is a major challenge to developing countries, particularly Nigeria. The meeting is therefore designed to build the capacity of our investigators to enable them trace the areas in which the government is losing money, look for the likely places people hide money, stop the illicit financial flows, and recover the funds.
“We are already working with the FIRS and getting a lot of tax evaders and defaulters into the nation’s tax net. One of the takeaways from here is the kind of question an investigator needs to ask in tracking IFFs and money laundering.’’
Owasanoye stressed the need to widen the revenue base, improve tax collection, combat tax evasion and illicit financial flows as well as asset recovery to improve the country’s finances.
The Chairman of Inter-Agency Committee on Stopping IFFs from Nigeria, Dr Adeyemi Dipeolu, assured that the committee was working assiduously to curb the menace in the country.