The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has attributed Nigeria’s revenue losses to fragmented tax systems and agencies.
In a statement in which this submission was made, the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami explained that the country has 774 Local Governments, and each of them has a tax authority; each of the 36 states, too, has revenue authorities with their respective mandates; then we have the FIRS and Customs.
While encouraging the government to promote efficiency and act according to global best practices, the FIRS boss maintained that the leadership of the country should consider amending tax laws to harmonise the tax agencies and tax system.
“With this, when the FIRS, for instance, visits ‘Company A,’ it can serve one assessment on the company, and also on the individual that owns the company; it can also ask the company to account for the VAT it has collected, and ask for PAYE it has deducted from its employees as well as the Personal Income Tax of the promoters of the company. This is not the case, and as such, has created a huge gap in our tax system,” he added.
Nigeria’s insufficient revenue challenge
BizWatch Nigeria understands that with the country’s debt servicing exceeding her revenue between January 2022 and April by over N300 billion, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government would have a lot to worry about should the threat be actualised.
