The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Olawale Edun, on Wednesday charged the management of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to deploy the needed technology and solutions with a view to achieving 18% tax-to-GDP ratio target set for the country.
The minister, who gave the charge the FIRS Management Retreat with the theme ‘Re-imagining Tax Administration for Equity and Economic Growth’ in Abuja, noted that currently the nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio stood at 10.8%, representing one of the lowest in the African continent.
He said: “Our tax to GDP target is 18 per cent from the current 10.8 per cent and the FIRS is a strategic agency that has been mandated by the federal government to achieve that.
“If you see the 2024 budget, revenue target has been increased and the Service has a target of about N19 trillion this financial year, the only way to achieve that is to restrategise and deploy technology to ensure that our tax revenues are increased for economic growth”, Edun added.
Earlier in his opening remarks at the forum, the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, spoke on the new operational structure of the revenue agency scheduled to become operational in February this year and maintained that it would help to eliminate confusion and redundancy in tax administration in Nigeria.
The FIRS boss said the unveiling of the new FIRS organisational structure marked a historic milestone in the Service as it would revolutionise tax administration in Nigeria.
According to him, the Service collected N12.3 trillion revenue in 2023 and has been given a new target of N19.4 trillion in the 2024 fiscal year and establishing a customer-centric organisational structure designed to streamline processes and enhance efficiency in the FIRS tax operations will help to achieve the target.
