FIRS renews effort to achieved N12trn revenue target by December
By Ibn Usman Abubakar
The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has trained the members of the Joint Tax Borad in Kano to heance their capacity on tax processes and digitization.
According to the FIRS, the training was timely as Governments at all levels ramp up the tax net amid tough fiscal space resulting from the country’s mounting debt profile.
Speaking with DAILY COMMERCE on the sideline of the session in Kano over the weekend, the FIRS officer, Chimenka Ezeribe, said “Nigeria is currently facing a revenue crises and it requires a whole lots of money for the government to be able to solve the economic challenges facing the nation including high level of debt and increased demands from the citizens”.
Speaking on the role of media in improve tax revenue, Ezeribe said one way the journalists could help the government to archive N12 trillion tax collection targed by the end of December, 2023 is by continous public enlightenment
He added that, ”The reason there’s a gap in tax revenue collection is because of ignorance, so public enlightenment and creating awareness for Nigerian citizens, telling them why they have to pay tax”.
Ezeribe, who took the participants through processes of revenue generation and public expenditure, said “Nigerian are getting some of the benefits of the tax being paid even though it’s not 100%, some of the benefits associated with tax payment are coming from the government”.
“I have had some reasons in the past where I asked some tax payers wether they’ve been robbed in their homes or work places and the response was no, meaning that the government is doing something necessary by funding the police force and other security agencies and that is why they have never been robbed, even though we know the country is facing some serious security challenges but the government is doing its best”, Ezeribe noted.
Speaking further on the importance of paying tax, Ezeribe noted that public schools are subsidized in Nigeria using revenue from tax.
On tax payment processes, he said, “The tax generation method has seen a lot of enhancement through adoption of technological tools and automation”.
“Today Nigerian can pay taxes from the comfort of their homes and offices. There are many digital platforms that can be used to pay taxes as it stands today which is a form of enhancement for many people so they won’t have to stress in trying to pay tax,” he added.
