The House of Representatives is investigating the alleged 30 billion dollars annual revenue leakages as a result of payments on account of foreign currency denominated contracts by companies.

The Chairman, House Committee on Finance hon. James Faleke, and Hon. Victor Nwokolo, Chairman, House Committee on Banking and Currency and other members commenced the investigation on Monday in Abuja.

According Falake said the committee would also investigate foreign exchange allocation to companies from sources such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) autonomous, interbank domiciliary and over the counter purchase.

The purchases according to Falake, are for the importation and payment of foreign services vendors, dividend repatriation, foreign loans and interest payments.

“We are all akin to Nigeria’s recurring and growing fiscal deficit, and that to sufficiently finance the Federation’s annual fiscal expenditures, the government is left with no choice but to borrow billions of dollars every year.

He added that despite the enormous inflows of capital importation and foreign direct investment over the years in numbers, one would expect it to translate into revenue generation for the country but that is not the case.

He stated that it was for this reason that the House of Representatives through its Joint Committees of Finance, and Banking and Currency launched the investigation.

The lawmakers, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the billions lost to tax evasion and diversion of foreign exchange allocations annually, saying if the leakages were blocked, the funds would have been used for development purposes.