By Godfrey AKON
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, says it is proposing the introduction of Road Infrastructure Tax in Nigeria to make the informal sector contribute to building a modern society.
Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Mamman Nami, disclosed this on Thursday while receiving a delegation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, led by its National President, Chris Isiguzo, in his office, in Abuja.
Nami said the proposed road infrastructure tax to be administered by FIRS, will provide government with adequate funding for road construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance, as well as providing the needed security for roads in the country.
According to the FIRS boss, “one quick and very important intervention required of you is in the area of the Road Infrastructure Funding Scheme that the country needs in order fix our roads and bringing the informal sector to the tax net.”
He noted that “in many jurisdictions, road users pay for the use of road infrastructure as such it shouldn’t be seen as an additional burden on our citizens because it has the potential of making life better for all of us.”
Speaking further, Nami stated that Nigeria’s economy presently relies heavily on non-oil revenues to discharge its statutory responsibility of paying salaries and providing social amenities to the citizenry.
“Without the tax that you pay governments at all levels would not be able to fulfil their mandate to the electorates. Tax money also helps to ensure the roads you travel are safe and always in good condition,” he said.
He noted that the recent rise in the price of crude oil ordinarily should have impacted positively on the Petroleum Profit Tax payable by oil producing companies. However, it has shown otherwise due to some reasons.
He said “Crude oil production has been limited by OPEC quota. Nigerian OPEC quota as at July 2021 was about 1.5mbpd as against its crude oil production budget of 1.8mbpd.
“This is a shortfall of 300,000 barrels per day. Our average daily crude oil production is around 1.250mbpd as against the allocated 1.5mbpd OPEC quota which has resulted in a shortfall of almost 250,000 barrels per day mainly caused by crude oil theft and force majeure declared by some of the IOCs. The total shortfall to FGN budgeted production is about 550,000 barrel per day.
He said the service has commenced usage of VAT Form 002A for enrolment and tracking of branch offices of major VAT payers, adding that this will certainly improve VAT collection and capacity, having achieved 114.66 per cent of VAT collection target in the first half of the year.
“It will interest you to know that the Service collected a total of N4.2Trillion between January to September, 2021. This feat was achieved as a result of the efficiency and effectiveness of the TaxProMax Solution and intelligence/data we gathered, mined and analyzed in the period under review,” he said.
Earlier, the NUJ National President, Isiguzo, said the visit of the union was part of his resolve to engage critical institutions as a key stakeholder in charting a way forward for the country’s collective good.
The NUJ president described FIRS as a vital institution in the country, which “requires all the support it needs especially at a time when the country is security-challenged, adversely affected by Covid-19 and faced with FOREX crisis as well as political intrigues from different parts of the nation.”
He said the NUJ has noted closely the FIRS’ “strident efforts to shore up the country’s revenue by deploying technology and the requisite personnel in this regard. Of interest to the Union is your digital technology solution, TaxPro-Max.
