The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, on Monday charged members of the newly inaugurated Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) to discharge their duties with high level of professionalism, integrity, diligence and fairness to all parties.
The Minister gave this charge while inaugurating the body of Tax Appeal Commissioners in Abuja, stressing that they should avoid unnecessary delays and adjournment of cases and that their decisions should be in line with the provisions of the tax laws.
Noting that the successive governments’ desire to achieve a sustainable growth and development of the economy informed efforts by successive governments to reform the tax system, Ahmed said that one of the outcomes of the series of reforms was the establishment of the TAT in 2010.
She described the establishment of the Tribunal as a major milestone in the annals of the country’s tax dispute resolution mechanism.
The minister explained: “One of the key objectives of the government in setting up the Tribunal is to reduce the incidence of tax evasion and improve the tax payers’ confidence. Others include, the need to ensure fairness and transparency of the tax administration and to minimize delays and bottlenecks in adjudication of tax disputes.
“As an essential component of the ‘change’ agenda of the present administration, Nigeria launched a Revised National Tax Policy in January 2017 and a provided tax amnesty platform through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme. Very fundamentally, the current tax policy of the government places emphasis on areas of harnessing all necessary inputs towards achieving voluntary tax compliance”, she added.
The minister urged the commissioners to ensure quality service delivery in line with extant laws, particularly in supporting the government’s quest to improve revenue generation and minimize the monolithic dependence on oil revenue.
According to her, the present government has strengthened the TAT by ensuring that the tribunal is constituted across the six geo-political zones in addition to the ones in Lagos and Abuja for ease and accessibility by the taxpayers.
Similarly, she disclosed that government had also expanded the Lagos Tribunal to three panels in order to facilitate the timely resolution of appeals emanating from Lagos, adding that going forward, the government is working towards the strengthening of the operations and legal framework of the tribunal in line with the recommendation of the National Tax Policy Review Committee.
Earlier in his remarks, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, said that the Tax Appeal Commissioners are “expected to hold office for a term of three years, which is subject to renewal for another term of three years only”.
He explained that the Tribunal was one of the windows created in the nation’s tax administration system which offers an aggrieved party the opportunity to explore other dispute resolution mechanisms before gaining access to the law courts.
Isa-Dutse noted that the TAT had helped to reduce the caseload of the over-laden regular courts by providing less formal fora for quicker, cheaper and expert resolution of tax disputes in the public interest.
The Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) was established pursuant to Section 59 (I) and the Fifth Schedule of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, 2007.
Its mandate is to resolve disputes arising from the operations of the following tax laws and regulations as specified in the 1st Schedule to the FIRS (Establishment) Act, 2007: “i. Companies Income Tax Act (CITA); ii. Petroleum Profit Tax Act (PPTA); iii. Personal Income Tax Act (PITA); iv. Capital Gains Tax Act (CGTA); V. Stamp Duties Act (SDA); vi. Value Added Tax Act (VATA); vii. Taxes and Levies (Approved list for collection) Act, and viii. Other laws, regulations, proclamations, government notices or rules ryelated to these Acts which are expressly spelt out in the Fifth Schedule to the FIRS (Establishment) Act.
