Nami Tasks Professional Bodies On Nigeria’s Tax Dev
BY VICTOR BUORO – The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami has challenged professional bodies in the regulation of tax practice to lead conversations on matters of tax policy and laws as part of their contributions to Nigeria’s tax development process.
Nami threw the challenge at a meeting with Council Members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) to discuss the implementation of an MoU on standardisation of tax practice in Nigeria.
According to Nami, a value-based leadership approach is required from the councils with the professional bodies engaging FIRS to deepen the institutional framework through qualitative reporting and effective representation of their clients.
“Our professional bodies need to speak on matters of tax policies and tax laws, especially on proposals to annual Finance Bills. We also urge you to help the Service to deepen its institutional framework through quality reporting and effective representation of clients by our professional colleagues.
“We need to stem the tides in improving financial reporting to reduce the spate of ‘copy and paste’ financial reporting system as we experience today.” the FIRS boss said.
Nami, who is also a Fellow of two of the three professional bodies, said as the country’s tax authority, the FIRS has adopted renewed strategies to tackle financial reporting concerns, with new departments, such as the Intelligence, Strategic Data Mining and Analysis Department, the Special Crimes Department, the Tax Incentives Management Department, and the Emerging and Special Taxes Department, already created to drive the processes.
A statement by the Special Assistant to the FIRS Executive Chairman on Media and Communication, Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola said these departments are at the forefront of unraveling financial reporting issues through data mining for accountability and transparency in the nation’s tax administration.
For him, the FIRS, alongside State Inland Revenue Services, is currently collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to build a databank to improve tax investigation in the country.
Other strategies include the accreditation of tax consultants and auditors in the FIRS, the review of data from Automatic Exchange of Information as well as increased enforcement actions.
In their remarks, Presidents of the three professional bodies, Mr Tijjani Musa Isa of ICAN, Professor Benjamin Osisioma of ANAN, and Mr Adesina Adedayo of the CITN praised the Nami-led FIRS management for showing leadership in pushing for and enabling a resolution of the squabbles between the three bodies.
Appreciating Nami for his visionary leadership, Professor Osisioma said failure to cooperate among the three bodies would lead to chaos in the country’s tax regulation practice, adding; “If we fail to cooperate and collaborate, we would destroy what we are trying to build.”
