The federal government has maintained its stance on harmonisation of taxes as part of efforts to boost revenue collection.
The chairman of the Joint Tax Board (JTB), who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, stated this on Monday in Abuja at the 154th board meeting of the JTB which comprises the FIRS and the 36 states’ inland revenue service boards.
Daily Trust earlier reported that the federal government through the special adviser to the President on revenue, Mr. Zach Adedeji, had earlier hinted at harmonisation of taxes from 52 to 10 as well as renaming of the Federal Inland Revenue Service to Nigeria Revenue Service.
Speaking at the event, Nami said multiple taxations have been one of the major challenges of revenue collection in Nigeria, a situation which the federal government is tackling head on to boost collections.
“The economy has been battling with multiple taxations and the meeting today, which has all the 36 states revenue service boards and the FIRS, is targeted at brainstorming and finalizing the harmonisation of these multiple taxes, whether you call it informal or black market taxes, in order to encourage investments and raise adequate revenue.
“The irony of these many taxes is that it doesn’t allow us to collect more revenue. Therefore, we have resolved to have lesser taxes because the lesser taxes, the more revenue as people will be encouraged to pay.
“You recall that government announced the constitution of a tax committee recently to achieve this purpose and we have consulted with the NEC and the state governors for their support that they have given us.
“We are confident that with the inauguration of the committee tomorrow (today) by Mr President, we will immediately resolve all these issues,” Nami stated.
Speaking on the partnership with the informal sector to bring them to the tax net, the JTB chairman said petty traders and businesses with less than N25 million turnover will be excluded from paying companies income tax (CIT) in line with the Finance Act.
In his presentation, a tax expert and chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, said Nigeria must as a matter of urgency streamline its many taxes.
“The more we impose taxes, the lesser revenue we collect and the lesser taxes, the more revenue which is what we are targeting.
“South Africa in 2022 alone collected N78.2 trillion in taxes, which is triple our national budget. As such, the solution is not to introduce more taxes but focus on a few that are yielding positive results,” Oyedele said.
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