August 7, 2019

The Executive Director, Rural Women and Youth Development (RUWOYD), Sokoto State, Abudu Yusufu has urged governments to institute effective tax structures to increase the size of national budgets by raising corporate tax payment. Speaking at a Stakeholders Forum on Tax and Gender-Responsive schools under the ActionAid initiative of ‘Tax Justice & Gender Responsive Public Services and Breaking Barriers’, he said, “Effective tax structures can create incentives to improve governance, strengthen channels of political representations and reducing corruption.” He noted that “fair and effective tax collection is effective for collecting revenue to deliver services that citizens need. It is a powerful tool for redistributing wealth within society to address poverty and inequality. “A functioning state that can meet the basic needs of its people must rely ultimately on its revenue to meet development objectives,” he said. Yusufu said tax is fair when it helps reduce poverty and fulfil human rights, that is, when tax takes little from the poor, more from the rich and when taxes are used to pay for public services. He added: “This means that VAT is low, that tax exemptions exist for basic products that help poor people; that tax is not charged many times on the same thing, and that no huge tax increases happen for poor people year on year.”   Source:  daily trust

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Tunde Fowler, has hinted that the country’s various tax and excise law reforms might soon be harmonised, as the agency inaugurated the reconstituted National Tax Policy Implementation Committee (NTPIC). Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Fowler said since the committee had been officially put in place, the National Assembly might soon be required to pass a bill to carry out the harmony exercise. Fowler charged the Technical Committee to accelerate the development and submission of a draft, Finance Bill, to harmonise the various tax and excise law reform efforts. “It is our expectation that the Technical Committee will work assiduously over the next few weeks to produce a singular set of fiscal measures that will be considered and approved by the reconstituted NTPIC. “Once agreed, these fiscal measures are to be submitted to the Economic Management Team and Federal Executive Council, for approval and ultimate transmission to the National Assembly, for passage into law, as part of the efforts to support the 2020 Executive Budget proposal.” What you should know: Tax harmonisation is generally understood as an adjusted tax system of different jurisdictions in the pursuit of a common policy objective. This type of policy involves the removal of tax distortions affecting commodity, and factor movements in order to bring about a more efficient allocation of resources within an integrated market. Controlling tax rates does not only stabilize tax revenues but is also sometimes necessary for moving forward with economic and political integration. On the other hand, deregulating tax rates maintains the autonomy of member countries in tax matters for their own short-term economic and social policy purposes. In addition, it mitigates political distortions. Prior to this development, OXFAM, an International Non-Governmental Organisation, had advised the Nigerian government to review the country’s tax incentive policy, which currently costs the country huge revenue loss.   Source: Nairamatrics

The Federal Inland Revenue Service on Wednesday said it generated N5.23tn for the Federal Government in four years, aside from the income from crude oil. The Chairman of the FIRS, Mr Babatunde Fowler, stated this during his visit to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai. He added that the army’s efforts in ensuring nationwide security had created the “environment for the huge revenue generation.” He said, “We are quite aware that unrest brings about poverty, unemployment and instability, which affect the economy. However, in the last four years, the economy has come out of recession and several sectors of the economy are experiencing improved performance. “That is why in the last four years, we have generated in excess of N5.23tn. This is outside oil revenue, which has never happened before. A part of this reason is that the Nigerian Army has done its beat of dealing with situations that would have caused instability and affected an environment conducive to investment. “If there is anything we can do to assist the army in its operations, but not on the war front, we will be willing to show our support.” Fowler announced the FIRS’ donation of 20,000 books and literature on tax education for distribution to the various Army Command Secondary schools and Command Children schools. The army chief, in his response, commended the FIRS for the improvement in the revenue base of the country. He said, “Improving the revenue generation of the country has helped a lot of investments to flourish and the governance will be better for it. We want to assure you that we will remain undaunted in our mandate. It is our constitutional responsibility to protect and defend the territorial integrity of the country. “We do this with the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Air Force and other security agencies playing their part. We are ever ready to continue our responsibilities to ensure that we have peace and stability so that the economy will thrive. So, while we do the physical aspect, you will do the financial aspect of ensuring security.”   Source:  Lagos Tv