The Federal Capital Territory Inland Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) is to commence the auditing of residents of Abuja, especially high network individuals in a bid to ensure they pay their taxes correctly and promptly.
Haruna Abdullahi, acting executive chairman FCT-IRS, disclosed this while addressing participants at a capacity building programme organised by the service in collaboration with Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).
Abdullahi informed that the service has commenced the training of 200 personnel to enhance productivity, according to a statement on Wednesday signed by Mustapha Sumaila, head, corporate communications, FCT-IRS.
He noted that capacity building was one of the core objectives of FCT-IRS, and aligned staff with the projects and evolving challenges faced by the service, especially those pertaining to non-compliance and enforcement. He further said it was in line with the mandate of the service to constantly boost revenue generation in the FCT.
According to the acting chairman, the need to ensure efficient auditing and tax payment was one of the reasons the service decided to embark on the training to prepare its employees for the task ahead.
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Abdullahi said tax officials needed technical and verbal skills to effectively audit and interact with taxpayers, especially high network individuals and politically exposed persons to ensure prompt compliance.
He added that the responsibility of the service was key to the success of the FCT administration hence, skilful tax men needed to rapidly grow the tax net.
He commended the efforts of the president of CITN, Adesina Adedayo towards ensuring that highly experienced and witty facilitators were provided.
President of CITN, Adedayo while speaking, said the FCT-IRS was an organised agency with an effective means of ensuring service delivery.
He also disclosed that in order to grow the service from where it is presently to where it needs to be, infrastructure, system and capacity must be put in place.
He added that the role of enlightenment of taxpayers could not be overemphasised as information dissemination and awareness drive compliance, thus, efforts must be made towards sensitisation in order to boost collection and eliminate ignorance as an excuse for non-compliance.
