The Federal Government has projected a total of N20billion revenue from the e-commerce subsector annually, Chief Executive, Gention Global Resources Limited, Mr. Segun Ebozoje,disclosed this.
The firm’s boss who made the disclosure at the weekend at a public forum in Lagos, said it is part of the Federal Government’s strategy to generate revenues from every sector of the economy in order to boost the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Ebozoje, whose firm has been engaged by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to design an automated system to aid the collection and remittance of Valued Added Tax from the e-commerce businesses, said the Federal Government will generate a total of N20billion revenue from e-commerce businesses when the automated remittance system kicks off.
He however stressed the need for the signing of a tripartite agreement involving the e-commerce businesses, the banks and FIRS in making the process of automated VAT remittance possible.
Gention’s legal representative led by Miss Nkem Okuoyibo also gave an overview of the tax laws with special emphasis on VAT as it applies to a company’s obligation in the collection and remittance of VAT to the Federal Government.
Ebozoje further explained the roles of each party which include the need for the operators to submit a direct debit mandate to its bank to enable the latter debit the operators’ account at source as applicable, and the FIRS obligation to providing information on the amount due as VAT on a daily basis through the help of the automated VAT remittance system.
As part of efforts to achieve this, a stakeholders’ forum was called to entertain concerns of stakeholders ahead of the implementation of VAT deduction at source from the e-commerce sector.
At the maiden stakeholders’ forum representatives from FIRS, Jumia, Konga, InterSwitch, eTranzact, KPMG, NIBSS, and Gention were in attendance as they proffered solutions to foreseeable challenges that could impede the process.
