FIRS targets N4trn revenue from oil and gas in 2020

The fiscal ambition of the Muhammad Nami-led Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) took another dimension Tuesday as the FIRS chief declared the service intended to generate as much as N4 trillion from the extractive industry alone this year.

Mr Nami gave the disclosure during a visit by members of the Nigerian operations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to his office in Abuja.

He said the FIRS needed the collaboration of the OECD in areas covering data interpretation, information sharing, capacity building, data usage and other technical aspects towards achieving its tax revenue projections in the oil and gas sector and the evolving digital economy.

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In the same vein, Nami sought the solidarity of the OECD in curbing the tax evasion practices of oil companies and multinationals in Nigeria by means of illicit profit-shifting to countries abroad.

The FIRS boss said “ICT has also made tax collection more complex, especially in trans-border trade and trans-continental commerce in which big players like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba and other e-commerce corporations do big business around, drive the digital economy and yet countries find it difficult to take due tax from the huge economic activities these online giants engage in.

“This is more so for developing countries like Nigeria where our people buy luxury goods more and more online while these big online stores don’t pay any tax to us here in Nigeria.

“The complexity of the digital economy to the tax authorities also extends to the telecommunication and financial sectors, including the emerging trades and the exchange carried out using digital currency.”

 

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