- FIRS to Raise Tax-to-GDP Contribution by 20%
The Federal Inland Revenue Service has expressed its commitment to increase government’s revenue through taxation by 20 per cent before the end of the 2018 financial period.
As part of efforts to achieve this target, the FIRS said it had started introducing some initiatives, according to a communiqué issued after a recent meeting of the Joint Tax Board.
Part of the communiqué read, “Revenue authorities nationwide should ensure that all efforts are made to increase the national tax revenue to the Gross Domestic Product ratio to at least 20 per cent by December 31, 2018.”
The FIRS also instructed state tax revenue authorities to explore all non-Personal Income Tax sources in bringing about an improvement in the non-PIT to Internationally Generated Revenue.
The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Tunde Fowler, said that tax administrators had a strong sense of responsibility to the a nation.
He said, “Our sense of responsibility stems from the fact that the nation is relying on us to provide it with adequate funds with which to fund its development objectives.
“Moreso now that we can no longer rely on oil revenue as the major source of funding, we have to seek innovative ways to maximise non-oil revenue collection.”
In order to maximise non-oil revenue, he said it must provide taxpayers with the most convenient, transparent and efficient way to fulfil their tax obligation.
Fowler said that the FIRS had been able to do this with the deployment of the six e-solutions which gave taxpayers a platform to conduct their tax transactions any day and time from anywhere in the world.
“Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is still one of the lowest in the world and we have to increase this significantly if we are to provide the funds that will giveus meaningful development and take the country back to the days when things worked,” he said.
