***Targets raising taxpayers from 35% to 90%
By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has charged Nigerians to fulfill their constitutional tax responsibility to aid economic growth just as it emphasized on the need for increased tax compliance to drive development and reduce borrowing in the country.
Chairman of the FIRS, Muhammad Nami, made the call in Abuja on Tuesday during a live broadcast of stewardship, jointly organized by the Taxation Board and the Government to Citizens Interface (G2C Interface), an organization providing connecting platform between government and the governed.
Nami, who was represented by the Secretary of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) of the FIRS, Hajiya Nana-Aishat Obomeghie, explained that tax payment enables the government to carry out infrastructural development, provide social amenities and fulfill the social contract between citizens and the state.
Nami, who pointed out that remitting the accurate taxes is a constitutional responsibility of every citizen who has entered the taxable age, noted that only 35% of Nigerians who are Constitution-bound are currently filing and paying taxes, a situation which has continued to deny the country needed revenues.
He, however, disclosed that the Board is aiming to increase the number of taxpayers within the country from the current 35% to 90%, thereby increasing revenue generation by 300% and enabling the government to achieve its revenue targets.
“We are citizens of this great nation and we must be patriotic and obey the Constitution because Section 24 of the Nigerian Constitution says that it is the responsibility of every citizen in this country to file and pay the correct taxes and it is when we pay the taxes that we can get the money for the needed development and good infrastructure and build the country of our dream.
“Though, we have been able to make a N10 trillion at the federal level and N1.8 trillion at the sub-national for 2022, but it’s not enough. That is when we look at the number of people we have in the tax net, currently, we have about 35% of taxable adults in Nigeria in the tax net and we want to move to 90% because that is what obtains in the other climes, by then we should be able to significantly move our tax to GDP ratio, to the kind of level we have in the African continent.
“One way to do that is to leverage on data technology and automation of systems. That is at the Joint Task Board level now, being chaired by able Chairman, Alhaji Muhammad Nami, we are building what we call Data for Tax Initiative. In that Data for Tax Initiative, we are supposed to connect over 38 economic activities together, such that every citizen in this country is not able to carry out any significant economic activity except by keying into that platform and by then we should be able to shore up the tax-base of this country to about 90% and that will help to increase revenue to over 300%”, he said.
Asked about the challenge the refusal of high net-worth individuals to file proper taxes in the country, he said “that is the main reason we are building the Data for Tax because without that you don’t have evidence to disprove what somebody is filing to you, but if you have your own data, you present the data, you even send the data ahead so that the person knows that you have the aces and when you say this is your income, the person cannot dispute just to comply.
“Even this N10 trillion that was generated by FIRS was as a result of evidence, data, correct situation of the taxpayers. I can tell you in percentages that some tax payers that were paying something like 20% are now paying 80%, with the evidence of this data.
“So these are high net-worth individuals, that is what we call them in taxation, will readily come into the system because there’s no way you’ll spend this money in cash, they pass through a system and what we hook up to that system and link you up with your NIN and Tax identification Number, you cannot dispute but to comply and when you comply and pay you will feel a pinch and you will ask the political leaders ‘what did you use my money for?”, he said.
Also speaking to journalists during the event, Convener of the Forum and Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Political Matters, Dr Bode ‘Gbore, said the platform was created to provide a meeting point between the government and citizens, to breach the usual gap and engender openness and understanding.
