New tax bill not threat to agency, FIRS chairman tells NASENI, others

Zacch Adedeji, chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has reassured heads of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) that the four tax bills currently before the National Assembly do not constitute a threat to their agencies or the jobs of individuals.

Adedeji gave the assurance in Abuja while receiving the heads of the agencies.

Adedeji noted that the proposed changes, including the renaming of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), were to enhance efficiency, streamline tax compliance, and ensure sustainability for agencies, without reducing their funding or functions, while addressing the challenges of tax multiplicity.

“I want to assure you that there is nothing in the bills that will reduce your funding, effectiveness or efficiency. What we have in the bills are provisions that will help us in laying a solid foundation for your sustainability.

“The Federal Government is repositioning its fiscal outlook to be able to meet the funding requirements of all agencies. The main objective is to enhance tax efficiency and ease compliance levels.

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“The bills, when passed into law, will allow various agencies to focus on their respective functions rather than bothering about revenue collection. In our minds, we see change as reduction or elimination, which is not true. Most times, change is responding to our current circumstances. There is a consensus that the multiplicity of taxes is one of our problems. But what are the foundations of this multiplicity?

“The laws that set up these agencies, commissions and boards have tax provisions embedded in them and these provisions must be implemented. So when people carry out their constitutional roles as stipulated in their acts or laws, you can’t say what they are doing is illegal.

“So, in the wisdom of President Bola Tinubu, for us to overcome these problems, we should harmonise these laws scattered in different books. That is what the Nigeria tax bill means. And when you look at the real principle of this reform is to bring us up to date, to show the reality of what we do now and also to stimulate economic activities.

“For us to be competitive and be able to convince business people around the world that Nigeria should be their preferred investment destination, we have to do it in the best way,” Adedeji said.