Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has blamed Nigeria’s poor revenue generation on leakage and corruption in the tax system observing that the country would not make any headway with such situations.
He made this assertion while emphasizing the need for the digitalization of Nigeria’s economy towards placing it among the top-ranked economies in the world.
Osinbanjo who was represented by the Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Muhammed NAMI, made these claims during the 24th Annual Tax Conference on ‘Global Disruption, Taxation, and Digitalisation: Implications For Socio-Economic Development, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
He observed that issues concerning insecurity, crimes and all other criminalities can only be tackled if there is adequate revenue in the hands of the government.
He called on the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, and other well-meaning Nigerians to comply with extant tax rules.
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His words: “Nigeria’s economy is fast, digitalizing. The digitalization of Nigeria’s economy means that the way and manners of organising and doing businesses have changed.
“Indeed the radical changes brought about by digitalization have displaced the traditional approach to tax administration. Consequently, the digitalization of tax administration is unavoidable. That is why our government has continued to heavily invest in the automation of tax administrative processes and digital infrastructure.
“To provide an enabling environment for the digitalised tax administration, the government has been making necessary tax policy change, developing rules for translation of the digital economy, enacted required legislation and also provided political backing for the team negotiating the new International tax rule for the digitalized economy.
‘Therefore I urge you to support the government and FIRS in the draft towards full digitalization of the tax administration processes due to the imperative for multi-stakeholder support in tackling the disruptions occasioned by digitalization and entrenching efficiency, ease of administration, ease of compliance, and general ease of doing business.
‘His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021 directed all stakeholders, including government ministry departments and agencies to support the Tax Automation drive of the Federal Inland Revenue Service in assessing their data processing systems.
‘It is in the best interest of our country that government at all levels should be in revenue, delivery issue of insecurity, crimes and criminalities, inadequate social-economic infrastructure etc can only be addressed if there is adequate revenue in the hands of government.
‘Therefore, I call on the CITN and every Nigerian to comply with extant tax rules, encourage others to comply and report those not complying. We must all understand that Nigerians alone have the responsibility to build the Nigeria of our dreams. We must therefore take the destiny of our country in our hands, create and develop the future that we all desire for this generation and the generation to come in the future.’
Earlier in his address, CITN’s president, Adesina Adedayo, tasked all tax professionals to be solution providers in mitigating challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.