FIRS advocates single revenue agency for Nigeria

The Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) on Thursday urged the Federal Government to adopt a single revenue authority for the country to boost its revenue.

The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, made the call at an event hosted by the agency in conjunction with Pedabo Professional Services in Lagos.

He said: “The government should look into a way for consolidating or aggregating its accounting mechanism so that all taxes paid by all that have been levied by way of charges are accounted for by a single revenue authority in the country.”

According to him, the adoption of a single revenue authority will help ensure that taxes collected in the country are remitted in good time for the government to have money to fund its budgetary estimates, provide social amenities for the citizens.

READ ASLO: FIRS makes N3.2trn revenue from non-oil sector tax in nine months

Nami added: “It is not as if taxes are not being paid but because of the leakages in the system that we are trying to block, in the part of recognising those taxes.

“When you come into a country like ours, when you pay something to our airport authorities, are you going to say that no taxes have been paid?

“One thing there is for somebody to assess that maybe taxes are being paid, which is in line with the mandate of the FIRS, which is assessment, collection, and accounting for taxes.

“So if payments of taxes are done and collections are done by different agencies of the government, accounting for those incomes becomes a big challenge.”

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