NCC Plans IT Solution To Probe Tax Remittance By Telcos, Others

The Nigerian Communications Commission is planning to deploy a technology, the Revenue Assurance Solution (RAS) to independently monitor revenues payable to the Federal Government.

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Umar Danbatta said on Friday that the technology will block the revenue leakages suffered by the government due to wrong billing of the players in the country’s communication industry.

Danbatta disclosed this at the virtual interactive session with stakeholders on the deployment of RAS in the Nigerian telecommunication industry.

Although no date has been fixed for it to go live, the EVC confirmed that the deployment will happen anytime soon.

The effort is part of the drive by the Nigerian government to shore up the country’s dwindling revenues.

The Information Technology sectors is one of the viable industry that has contributed reasonably to the country’s GDP.

In 2020, the sector accounted for 9.57 pr cent of the GDP, while in 2021, the sector contributed over 9.22 per cent of the GDP

But to make the gains of the growth in the sector reflect in revenue generation, the EVC said that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and other licensees must be held accountable to remit the actual tax and levy to the NCC and the FG.

The NCC cited Section 4(1) of the Nigerian Communications Act as empowering it to fix taxes and collect grant of communications licences.

Danbatta also revealed that the RAS has received the approval of the Federal Executive Council.

According to him, the RAS would optimize the annual operating levy that is payable to the NCC by telcos in the country.

One of the ways the RAS will sanitise the system is in its capacity to limit revenue loss arising from faulty billings and inaccurate data from service providers linked to service frauds.

The NCC revealed that the new technology would resolve the inconsistencies in the billing services provided by licensed service providers.

The class of licensees captured are the Mobile Network Operators; Value Added Content Aggregators; Interconnect Clearing Houses and the Private Network Links Licensees.

Danbatta said the technology will also help the Federal Inland Revenue Service in determining accurately the tax obligations of MNO and other licensees.

The EVC said, “You all know the effort the Federal Government under the able leadership of his excellency President Muhammadu Buhari is making toward blocking leakages in various revenue streams of MDAs and optimising the revenues that are accruing from those sources.

“One of those revenue sources in the commission is the annual operating levy that our licensees pay. Hitherto, we don’t have an independent way of verifying the amount of AOL payable to the NCC by our various licensees.

“We only rely on their books of account, that is not good enough. The government, the National Assembly have been really on our back trying to ensure we have a way to independently verify the amount of revenue that should be paid to the NCC.

“Finally we have gotten such a solution that is going to be deployed. The consultant has been found and as usual in our rule making process, we have just engaged stakeholders in the industry to explain the objective of deploying the RAC so that we get their cooperation.”

Danbatta explained that the system will determine arrears of the annual operating revenue owed the commission.

The Chief Executive Officer of Airtel, C. Surendran, who spoke virtually reiterated the company’s commitment to abide by the rules of the new initiative.