The House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) on invited First Bank of Nigeria and other Banks to appear before it alongside its Tax Consultant to reconcile the Education Tax Computation not remitted to the Fund by the banks from 2011 to 2022.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Miriam Onuoha issued the summon when some banks appeared before the panel to defend their non remittance of Education Taxes over the years at a public hearing on Monitoring of Collection, utilization and other associated services relating to Education Tax from 2011 – 2022 on Tuesday.
Onuoha said there were disparities between the figures that were in the Bank’s Financial Statements as Provisions for that purpose and what the Bank actually remitted to Federal Island Revenue Services (FIRS).
The Committee chairman said out of the 15 banks invited, about seven were supposed to appear before the panel on Tuesday, while only three of them showed up with three other writing to seek a new date to appear.
Full list of Banks summoned to appear on the 20th June with the aforementioned documents and persons include , Zenith Bank , Access Bank , First Bank, United Bank for Africa ( UBA) , Sterling Bank , Keystone Bank , FBN Quest Merchant Bank , First Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank , Stanbic Bank , Wema Bank , EcoBank , Fidelity Bank , Jaiz Bank and Unity Bank.
Deputy Chairman of the committee Hon. Bappa Aliyu Misau has observed that First Bank under remitted its education tax deductions to TETFund, an action which he said was punishable under the law.
Misau said: “unfortunately, you do not have the year-by-year breakdown but the available records you submitted in 2011 was N603,801. Then, in 2012, you are owing N301,263,135, in 2013, you have a credit balance of N102,713,615.
“Again, in 2014, you had a credit of N2.933, 659, then if you go to 2015, you have N25 million as outstanding, in 2017, N169, 852,600 outstanding, in 2018 you have N98 million outstanding, in 2012, you paid N7.877,451 then in 2020 N148 million credit, in 2021, N269,618,626.6 debit.
“Therefore, in 2022, you had N3.748,984, 654.64. Then you add it up, you sum the credit and the debit, you ended up with N3.749,353,260 outstanding. You know there is penalty for Non-Remittance”.
An Executive Director with First Bank, Bashir Yusuf who represented the bank at the meeting told the lawmakers that between 2011 and 2022, the Bank posted a Profit Before Tax (PBT) of N795,123 billion.
In his comments, the President Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Victor Osodeke urged the federal government to urgently stop tax waivers meant to fund tertiary institutions in the country.
Osodeke linked the poor funding of tertiary institutions and incessant industrial actions to waivers granted to banks and other private institutions.
He berated the Banks for providing different figures to the Committee after making submissions earlier in January 2024 under Oath.
The ASUU President Union further requested the FIRS to stand-up to their duties on the efficient and honest tax collection and stop the games playing with the Banks.
