Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has revealed that about N100billion has been discovered as tax revenue shortfalls by contractors between 2012 and 2017.

Kemi Adeosun

In a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Mr. Oluyinka Akintunde, the minister said she had ordered vendors of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to display their Tax Identification Numbers on their invoices before payment would be made by the MDAs.

She stated that already, the Federal Government’s directive had been given to the Accountant General of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, for implementation. Adeosun said the order was part of resolute efforts by the government to block revenue leakages by the MDAs’ vendors.

The minister, in the memo titled ‘Compliance with tax payments by Federal Government vendors’, stated that persistent leakages in revenue remittances by vendors had been uncovered by the government’s Project Lighthouse, a system-wide revenue intelligence data warehouse.

The leakages, according to her, are due to lack of TIN, particularly on Value Added Tax, Withholding Tax and other related inflows into the government’s coffers.

The minister said, “In order to address these lapses in the implementation of the 2017 budget as well as boost the revenue accruable to the government, all MDAs should be directed to insist that invoices submitted by vendors for payment must clearly state the TIN. “This is to confirm tax compliance by relevant government vendors before payments are effected.”

She added that the directive to the government vendors was in compliance with the provisions of both the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Public Procurement Acts of 2007. Adeosun noted that spot checks would be undertaken on the MDAs to confirm their level of compliance with the directive.