The 2021 Finance Bill must be tailored towards enabling an
efficient tax system that works for every Nigerian.
This was the position of the Federal Inland Revenue Service
(FIRS) Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami to journalists after a stakeholder
engagement on the Finance Bill 2021, at the House of Representatives, Abuja.
“Our laws and policies must first and foremost work for the
Nigerian people who we have either been elected or appointed to serve”, Nami
stated.
“Whatever proposals have been submitted for consideration
should be looked at critically vis-a-vis what works for Nigeria, the business
community, the taxpayers, tax consultants, and the Nigerian system altogether.
It will help us more if we realise that our collective effort and service is
not about us. It is about our country.
“We must build a tax system that is not only robust but that
will outlive our respective services to this nation; whether as members of the
executive, the judiciary or the legislature. In other words, these laws must be
made in a manner that reflects not just what we feel is right, but what is
indeed right—yesterday, today, and continues to be right tomorrow.”
Muhammad Nami further appealed that the Fiscal Policy Reform
Committee and the House Committee on Finance should continue to make laws that
stand the test of time and reflect economic realities. He further called for
laws that will not only assist the government at the three levels in mobilising
revenue but will also assist small and medium scale enterprises to grow, and
become taxpayers in the future.
The FIRS Executive Chairman also commended the leadership of
the National Assembly and members of the Executive for the annual review of the
Finance Act which he said has afforded the Federal Government the opportunity
to deploy new ways of enhancing domestic revenue mobilisation and improving tax
administration in the country.
“The Finance Bills have accorded the Federal Government and
the Fiscal Policy Reform Committee the opportunity to annually review and
identify gaps in our tax system, to fix them and ensure that government can
earn the much-needed revenue for the execution of its mandate. Without the commitment
of the National Assembly leadership and members of the Executive, from day one
to the fiscal reforms that the Finance Bills were aimed to achieve, we would
not have been able to attain the resounding successes we have recorded since
2020.” Nami stated.
Describing the annual review as a “clear demonstration of
political will for the actualisation of good governance,” Nami highlighted that
it was the enablement provided by the Finance Act 2020 that gave the FIRS the
powers to deploy its own digital tax administration solution, TaxPro Max with
its attendant results.
“That single revolutionary amendment to the FIRS
Establishment Act gave us the power to deploy our home gown digital Tax
Administration Solution called the TaxPro-Max. This platform allows for
seamless electronic registration of taxpayers, electronic filing of returns and
payment of taxes.
“Consequently, it is not surprising that the FIRS was able
to collect over N5 trillion between January this year to date while we are
confident that we will achieve our total VAT target for the year”, Nami stated.
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