…says govt to launch consumer credit scheme soon
Zacch Adedeji, chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, says Nigeria will only have a maximum of nine taxes after the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms concludes its work.
Adedeji spoke on Wednesday when the chief executive officer of Guinness Nigeria, Adebayo Alli, led the management team of the company on a visit to the Revenue House in Abuja.
The FIRS chairman in a statement by Dare Adekanmbi, his special adviser on media said the Service has responded to President Tinubu’s directive for a single-digit tax, and have restructured its operations to ffectively assess, collect and account for taxes.
““The president gave a directive that he wants a single digit tax in the country, meaning that the maximum number of taxes we will have after the work of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms will be nine taxes.
“We want to grow the pie such that even if we are taking the same percentage of the bigger pie, the result will be huge. By God’s grace, we will not introduce additional taxes nor increase any form of taxes. We are only determined to increase the pie”, he said
“We used to have functional types of taxes, but we have identified that the only customers we have are the taxpayers. We have improved the way we relate with our customers by rearranging our operations based on our customers, using their turnover as the basis to categorise them into large, medium and small.
The chairman said the FIRS will provide taxpayers with a one-stop shop to pay all forms of taxes, including audit and other activities.
The chairman further assured that President Tinubu’s strategic plan is being religiously followed and will lead the country out of the current economic challenges.
He added that President Tinubu, through the consumer credit scheme recently introduced, aimed at increasing the purchasing power of Nigerians to boost the productive capacity of companies and stimulate growth.
“In a couple of days, the consumer credit scheme will be launched and what that will do is to really set the right fundamentals most especially for the kind of products you sell.
“In an economy of our size, it will be extremely difficult if we don’t have a consumer credit scheme. People need to eat before they drink. But when they have credit to buy things, this gives them more money that they can use to come to drink and relax after work”, he added.
The chairman further informed that the president has also directed the commencement of a single window platform for your logistics at the ports. So, instead of having to pay in many places, you can now do that through the platform, most especially for companies like yours.
“You know your products before they come into the country, so you pay before they arrive as the issue of port congestion that delays the time you get your raw materials has been taken care of now”, he said.
Another bold decision which the president has also taken , he said is the birth of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Fund, noting that the infrastructure deficit increases the cost of moving these materials from one place to another.
“Based on the president’s plan, in the next three years, we will have a very good rail and road transportation network that will make movement of goods and raw materials easy and remove most of the bottlenecks for industries,” he said.
Earlier, Guinness CEO, said that the company would continue to do business in the country, notwithstanding macro-economic challenges being faced.
