The Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, on Thursday disclosed that the Federal Government collected N3.5 trillion from various taxes in the first eight months of this year.
This revenue represented N1 trillion above the total collections of N2.5 trillion generated in the corresponding period of last year
Fowler disclosed this while speaking at a stakeholders’ forum attended by representatives of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), organized labour, tax professionals, and the organized private sector (OPS), amongst others.
He explained: “If you look at 2018 revenue till date, between January and August, we have done N3.5 trillion, which was N1 trillion higher than the amount realised over same period in 2017.
“You can clearly see that even at current prices, the oil revenue tax cannot fund our nation. The only way to have a high level of tax compliance is to focus on the non-oil.
“A component of the non-oil happens to be Value Added Tax (VAT) and we have found that a number of business collect VAT and don’t remit it”, the tax expert added.
Fowler also hinted that the FIRS had started the audit of taxpayers nationwide to ensure increased tax revenue collection, improved service delivery to taxpayers and enhanced voluntary compliance.
While charging stakeholders to support the revenue agency’s efforts to reposition tax administration system in the country, he noted that experiences had shown over the years that revenues from crude oil were not sustainable given the volatility of the international oil market.
This is even as he disclosed that under the Joint Tax Board (JTB), the country now had a consolidated database of all taxpayers.
Fowler clarified: “We just concluded it and before the end of September, it will be made available to all state internal revenue services and other government agencies like Immigration and Customs. It will be available for tax administration.”
To enhance the efficiency of the nation’s tax administration, the FIRS boss said that all tax laws that were not in the interest of the taxpayers were being reviewed and appealed to taxpayers and stakeholders to support tax authorities in the interest of the nation’s development.
He noted further: “The greatest challenge for any tax administration is achieving and maintaining a high degree of self-assessment and voluntary compliance by taxpayers.
“Studies however show that the extent to which an economy is able to grow sustainably and develop depends to a large extent on its ability to generate tax revenue to finance its expenditure and the efficiency of its tax system”, the tax administrator added.
In their comments at the forum, some of the stakeholders raised concerns on the challenge of multiplicity of taxes and levies being collected and levied by different agencies, with most of them not remitted to government coffers.
