The staff of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) have raised the alarm over plots by the Minister of Labour and Employment, and the management of the Trust Fund to rip off over 5000 staff of the Trust Fund billions of naira through dubious and fraudulent tax deductions.
The agency which is under the Ministry of Labour ensures that all employers of labour comply with the Federal Government Initiative to protect and cater for their employees in the event of work-related accidents and injuries by making sure that all employers are duly registered with the fund and are up to date with their contribution and they provide safe working environments always.
The staffers said that if the Minister and his cohorts including Dr Michael Akabogu, the Managing Director of NSITF were not stopped, each staff would be ripped off between N200 to N500 thousand through the dubious regime initiated by the management.
They said that NSITF management has promised to resume the deduction of the fraudulent taxes from their salaries for the next 12 months starting from August 2022.
Staff in the Trust Fund said that the salary and wages commission had directed all agencies that have not implemented the minimum wage to do so. “We received a memo early this year informing us that the minimum wage arrears will be paid in three tranches,” the staff said on the conditions of anonymity.
“We were given a timeline for this payment. After paying the first tranche that was carefully calculated from January 2019- March 2022(36 months), the minister and management started playing all gimmicks about an unexisting tax regime that will eat up to 40-50% of the arrears.
“Both the Minister and management arm twisted the union into signing a bogus and fraudulent tax deduction from our arrears.
“The deduction of this seemingly fraudulent tax ranged from 200,000 thousand naira to 500 thousand naira per staff. This amount runs into billions based on a calculation of more than 5000 staff.
“They have refused to release any template on this particular deduction because it is non-existent even in the Finance Act. There’s no board at the moment. He operates as the CEO of NSITF. He has successfully moved the fund’s procurement department to the ministry.
“The union is the Association of Senior Staff of Bank, insurance and Financial institution (Domestic Unit). Our plea is for him to be stopped from proceeding with this nefarious act”.
Maureen Allagoa, the Executive Director, Administration of the Trust Fund declined to comment on the allegations of illegal tax deduction.
The Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige did not also respond to enquiries for comment as of the time of filing this report.
