***Tasks States To Deploy Technology To Boost Tax Collection
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it has generated N4.178 trillion revenue in the last 10 months.
The Executive Chairman of the service, Mr Muhammad Nami, disclosed this while presenting a report on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) at the 46th meeting of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) in Abuja on Friday.
Nami said the theme of the meeting “leveraging technology solution for enhanced administration of indirect taxes” was chosen due to the reality of the current economic challenges in the country.
Nami said what was realised within the period, represented 99 per cent performance of its 10 months target of N4.230 trillion.
He also said, as at third quarter of 2020, cumulative annual collections from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory was N974.197 billion.
According to him, this represents a drop of 1.39 per cent when compared with the collections from the same period in 2019 which was N988.024 billion.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed had a profound effect on IGR, especially at the sub national level following the record breaking cumulative annual collections from the states and FCT of N1.334 trillion recorded in 2019.
“We remain unwavering in our desire towards ensuring that we take advantage of the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and utilise technology and other ideas in the remaining part of the year to finish strong in our revenue drive.
“We are confident that with the support of all the critical stakeholders, the future of revenue generation and tax administration for our nation is bright,” Nami stated.
Meanwhile, the FIRS boss also disclosed that the service had planned to introduce states e-tax pay solution.
He said the solution was capable of carrying out auto calculation, deduction, remittances and unified receipting functions for relevant taxes accruing to three tiers of government.
He noted that FIRS was ready to bear the full burden of financing the implementation in view of the benefits it would yield to Nigerian tax environment.
Further, he urged states board of internal revenue service to leverage the use of technology to boost tax collection across the country.
He said oil revenue was no longer feasible due to dwindling oil prices in the international market hence the need to put necessary strategies to enhance non oil sector for maximum revenue generation.
He disclosed that in 2019, it was only N250 billion that was generated from oil taxes, adding that what would be generated in 2020 would be far less than that of 2019.
“We must leverage on technology to enhance tax collection, the concept of using manual model in collecting revenue is no longer obtainable.
“People do a lot of businesses that you don’t see them physically, they do it online, we must use electronic system to tax such persons or companies.
“We meet the state tax authorities to talk to ourselves on how we can use technology, data and information to enhance tax collection in their respective states,” he explained.
Nami, who is also the chairman of JTB, told the state’s revenue board chairmen to brace up in the course of diversification of economy in the country.
He added that attention must be shifted from oil to non oil revenue and technology was key in achieving that.
