The House of Representatives said on Sunday that banks in the country evaded tax and engaged in other illegal conduct such as false declaration, violation of laws and “self exemption from existing rules.”

The House noted that an ongoing investigation into tax collection and remittances by the banks had exposed how they allegedly short-changed the Federal Government through false declarations.

Its Committee on Finance said most of the 21 major banks being investigated by the House were “manipulating and distorting” information in a bid to hide their alleged fraudulent conduct from scrutiny.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said only six of the banks had tried to provide the information the committee sought from them.

Jibrin said, “Preliminary findings show a poor quality of returns by the banks, discrepancies in data submitted, outright refusal to present documentary evidence, blanket violations of existing laws, self exemption from existing rules, false declaration, manipulation and distortion of information among others.

“These despicable acts of gross misconduct clearly depict the unscrupulous and character of some banks and their Chief Executive Officers. For the Committee on Finance, this is unacceptable.”

The six banks the committee said provided some information on their compliance with tax regulations are CitiBank, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered Bank, GT Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank.

However, the committee said 15 banks failed to make full disclosures on their tax information.

The banks are “First Bank, Union Bank, United Bank for Africa, Diamond Bank, Unity Bank, Fidelity Bank, Mainstreet Bank, Sterling Bank, Heritage Bank, EcoBank, FCMB, Wema Bank, Skye Bank, Enterprise Bank and Keystone Bank.”

Jibrin explained further that the banks gave figures that were different from what they submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He also disclosed that the figures reported in their audited accounts were different from that of the CBN.

Jibrin explained further, “For instance, balances reported in the published audited accounts of some banks show huge variance with the figures submitted to the committee.

“The data submitted to the CBN in their monthly returns on the same issues were found to be different from what was tendered before the committee.

“Even more embarrassing are the inconsistencies and huge variances in some data provided in different pages of documents submitted, thus leaving the committee to conclude that many banks blatantly engage in the creative accounting technique of inflating their operating costs to reduce their exposure to taxes.”

The committee, which expressed concern that government was losing revenue due to the conduct of the banks, gave the CEOs of the 15 banks 48 hours to supply the required information to the committee.

The committee also summoned them to appear before it on September 23 to answer further questions.

“It is obvious that over the years, government has lost billions of naira in fraudulent and underhand dealings corruptly designed by some banks to evade tax,” it added.

Source: Punch (by John Ameh)