An ad-hoc committee of the House of Representatives has commenced an investigation into allegations that some telecoms companies, vendors and communication service providers in the country are owing N143.4 billion in taxes.

The Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Rep Ahmed Abu, disclosed this at the investigative hearing which is to assess the tax compliance status and remittance of statutory contributions to relevant government agencies by telecommunication service providers.

“So far, we have 24 companies and we have a total of N143.434billion,” he said, while also disclosing that auditors were still looking at the books of others including vendors and lottery operators operating under the platform of telcos.

The committee plans to meet with the companies, so that they can defend themselves and reconcile these figures with the committee.

Chairman of the Committee, Ahmed Abu, said, “When you say tax evasion, it is criminal in nature (but) tax avoidance is legal. So, what we are trying to do here is simple; to strengthen our laws.

“There is nothing wrong if you try to avoid tax, it means there are loopholes in our laws. And what we do is to strengthen these laws and make them better for the benefit of the industry and the benefit of the country,” he said.

The lawmaker who said the total figure was interim and needed to be reconciled, called on other companies to come forward to enable the committee get a more accurate picture.

“Between today and tomorrow, we hope that some of you (company representatives) that have not come forward to provide further documents to reconcile these figures, I am pleading with you to come forward, bring documents at your disposal which we don’t have and reconcile these figures so that we can move forward,” he said.