FIRS: Nigeria losing huge revenues through uncoordinated tax systems

The Federal Inland Revenue Service says Nigeria is losing huge revenues through fragmented tax systems and uncoordinated numerous collecting agencies.

The Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami, said this in a statement on Wednesday and called for amendment of the tax laws to harmonise revenue collections.

According to Nami, in Nigeria we have 774 local governments, each of them has a tax authority; each of the 36 states too has revenue authorities with their respective mandates; then the FIRS and the Customs.

The FIRS boss advised the government that to promote efficiency and act according to global best practices by amending “our tax laws to harmonise the tax agencies and tax system.”

He said, “With this, when the FIRS, for instance, visits ‘Company A,’ it can serve one assessment on the company, and also on the individual that owns the company; it can also ask the company to account for the VAT it has collected, and ask for PAYE it has deducted from its employees as well as the Personal Income Tax of the promoters of the company. This is not the case, and as such, has created a huge gap in our tax system.”