By Mercy Aikoye
Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zach Adedeji, has said that the collection of revenue by over 60 government agencies is a major cause of leakage of funds.
Adedeji who explained to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Wednesday that a lot of internal restructuring have been introduced sInce assumption of office, noted that revenue collection duty should be sole responsibility of the FIRS in order to ensure greater accountability in the system.
He was of the opinion that other revenue collection agencies of government should focus on their various core mandates, as he advocated for a single window method of tax collection to make the process less cumbersome and block leakages.
“We are doing a lot of reforms including the single window because if you look at FIRS, what we collect mainly is company income tax. The problem we have is that we do not have verifiable data in the country. So one of the major things we are doing which hopefully in the next two weeks or one month maximum, a law would be sent to the House to change so that all Nigerians must have one single number of identification which by law today is NIN. The plan is to make sure everything we do as citizens is linked directly to this NIN. This would also help address issue of tax leakage”, he said.
Adedeji explained that the Service was given a target of N10 trillion based on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) that was passed in 2023, and later reviewed upward to N11 trillion during the year, pointing out that the FIRS was able to deliver N12.3 trillion as the revenue collected for the year 2023 which was 11 percent above the target.
While noting that the performance was a result of the internal reform that they embarked upon and the favourable economic policy decision by the President, the FIRS Boss said the mandate of the Service for 2024 through the MTEF is to collect N19 trillion which is an additional N7 trillion compared to what was collected in 2023.
Chairman of the Committee, however Hon James Faleke, demanded to know if the proposed single window revenue would mean whether Customs, NIMASA, NPA and all the major revenue collectors would be subject to the FIRS or the Service would be collecting revenue on their behalf.
Adedeji said these agencies should rather concentrate on their individual primary mandates and leave the revenue collection to the FIRS.
Faleke lauded the initiatives to ensure payments are made directly to the contractors and not the MDAs. “No one here will doubt your capability, it’s just the political will. Thank God that we have a president who has given you the authority and of course back you with that political will to reform our tax system”, he said.
