The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has dragged about 2,000 corporate entities into the country’s tax net, Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has said.
He announced this in Abuja on Tuesday while responding to questions from journalists at the end of a capacity building workshop for ICPC investigators on investigating Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) held at the corporate headquarters of the commission.
Prof. Owasanoye disclosed that the 2,000 corporate entities were uncovered by investigations undertaken by the commission and their names have been forwarded to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for profiling.
“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,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, the ICPC chairman stated that the capacity building programme would help investigators to track illicit financial flows, money laundering and other areas the government is losing revenue and recover such funds.
“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,” Prof. Owasanoye explained.
He 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.
