The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad Nami, on Tuesday charged tax regulators and other industry stakeholders to rise up to the challenge of being in a position to tap into the stream of opportunity that advancements in science and technology afford them as a strategic option of improving their revenue generation capacities.
Nami gave the advice in his welcome address at the 17th General Assembly and 10th Anniversary of the West African Tax Administrators Forum (WATAF) held in Abuja.
Noting that Science &Technology is not only about rockets going to space; the top tax administrator explained that science and technology was also about effective tax collection and charged the sub-regional tax administrators to “maximize it in every possible way we can!”
For instance, the FIRS boss recalled the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic with the lockdown created challenges for the regulators as far as work flow and communication, adding that this necessitated the using of the Zoom platform for meetings, dissemination of information and other important aspects of our work, with good output! Opportunity is often clouded by adversity.
According to him, following the challenges triggered by the pandemic the FIRS had recently deployed its integrated tax administration system known as the TaxPro Max, to ease tax administration and compliance.
Nami explained that this cost saving, effective solution that was developed in-house by staff of the FIRS, is a user-friendly technological platform which is accessible by tax officers and taxpayers alike, for most tax operations.
He expatiated: “The early signs are good; following the deployment of the TaxPro Max in June 2021, the Service generated over N664 billion representing the highest revenue generated by the FIRS in a single month since the outbreak of COVID-19.
“We believe that with the simplification of tax remittances through the deployment of TaxPro Max and the resultant efficiency, the Service is geared towards recording increased collection rates, which will further enhance government revenue and improve transparency in tax administration”, Nami added.
