National Tax Dialogue: We Must Stop The Politicization Of Tax Revenue Generation – Nami

 …Recognises Nigeria’s top paying and most complaint taxpayers.

The Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami has called on the nation’s political class to treat tax revenue generation as an apolitical issue.

This was as he stressed the need for all hands to be on deck to support the tax system to make it function efficiently has urged

Nami, who stated these while delivering his opening remarks at the 2nd Annual National Tax Dialogue with the theme: “Tax Harmonisation for Enhanced Revenue Generation”, at the State House Conference Centre, on Tuesday, highlighted the revenue profile of the country in 2021, which showed that the FIRS contributed a monthly average of 59.45% of revenue shared by Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He said that it had become clear that the survival of the nation is dependent on tax revenue, adding that all hands must therefore be on deck to support the tax system and make it function efficiently.

Nami however noted with surprise that some people are playing politics with tax revenue generation and therefore appealed to the President to step-in to dissuade political tax gladiators to sheath their swords.

In the words of Nami; “Tax revenue is an inherently apolitical issue; it should be treated as such by all, irrespective of their political leaning.”

The FIRS boss also highlighted how the agency was able to record an unprecedented feat in tax revenue generation in 2021, in which the Service surpassed its target by collecting N6.4 trillion being the highest collection ever in the history of the FIRS.

Speaking on the theme of the event, the FIRS Executive Chairman noted that the dialogue was imperative given the prevalent issues of competing revenue agencies.

Nami said; “This discussion is imperative,” he said, “in view of the fact that despite our 38 tax authorities, several tax laws and numerous taxes or levies, majority of the taxpaying public still remain outside the tax net.

“The tax-dodgers found it convenient to meander among the competing revenue agencies escaping their tax obligations. The result is suboptimal revenue generation at all tiers of government.”

Declaring the Dialogue open, President Muhammadu Buhari said that a key deliverable of the dialogue is to promote synergy in tax administration among the different tiers of government.

Buhari said; ‘’Harmonising taxpayer identification across the country is a good start; but we must do more to promote ease of doing business—including ease of tax compliance-in Nigeria.

“On our part, we have started by clarifying in the 2021 Finance Act that FIRS is the sole authority to administer tax for the Federal Government.

“This clarification became necessary in order to avoid taxpayers being burdened with multiple tax compliance obligations towards different agencies of the same government.

“Multiplicity of tax administration is as undesirable as multiplicity of taxes; it creates uncertainty and instability; and above all, it is inefficient,” the President said.

In her own remarks, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed stressed the importance of the National Tax Dialogue, saying that it was designed to engage stakeholders in the Nigerian tax-space in meaningful discourse so as to glean information, ideas and experience in the aid of policy formulation and improved tax environment.

According to her; “We have observed that countries having lower economy and fewer tax base but streamlined tax administration has fared much better than Nigeria in terms of tax revenue collection; and ratio of tax-to-GDP.

“The goal for this year’s National Tax Dialogue is, therefore, to kick-start the discussion for the harmonisation of the fragmented tax systems into a coherent whole for improved tax revenue collection for all the governments in the Federation,” she said.

The 2nd National Tax Dialogue was also graced by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, the Minister of State Finance, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clement Agba, representative of the Ekiti State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr Makinde Araoye, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, among others.

The FIRS also used the occasion to also celebrate and reward Nigeria’s highest paying and most complaint taxpayers, including MTN, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, NOCACO, AIRTEL and CHEVRON.