The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, has disclosed its plans to recommend the introduction of Road Infrastructure Tax in Nigeria.
This, according to the tax agency, is to make the informal sector contribute to building a modern society.
The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, told a visiting delegation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, led by its National President, Chris Isiguzo, in his office, in Abuja, that the proposed tax to be administered by FIRS, would provide the government with adequate funding for road construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance, as well as providing the needed security for roads in the country.
“One quick and very important intervention required of you is in the area of the Road Infrastructure Funding Scheme that the country needs in order to fix our roads and bring the informal sector to the tax net,” Nami said.
He added that this should not be seen as an additional burden on the people because it has the potential of making life better for all, noting that in many jurisdictions, road users pay for the use of road infrastructure.
Speaking further, Nami stated that Nigeria’s economy presently relies heavily on non-oil revenues to discharge its statutory responsibility of paying salaries and providing social amenities to the citizenry.
“Without the tax that you pay, governments at all levels would not be able to fulfil their mandate to the electorates. Tax money also helps to ensure the roads you travel are safe and always in good condition,” he said.
He disclosed that the recent rise in the price of crude oil ordinarily should have impacted positively on the Petroleum Profit Tax payable by oil-producing companies. However, it has shown otherwise due to some reasons.
Nami added that the service created 10 Value Added Tax, VAT, Regional Coordination Offices across the country to drive collection of VAT.
“We have commenced the usage of VAT Form 002A for enrolment and tracking of branch offices of major VAT payers. This will certainly improve our VAT collection and capacity. We achieved 114.66 per cent of our VAT collection target in the first half of the year.
“It will interest you to know that the Service collected a total of N4.2trn between January to September 2021. This feat was achieved as a result of the efficiency and effectiveness of the TaxProMax Solution and intelligence/data we gathered, mined and analysed in the period under review,” he said.
“The service successfully facilitated both the mock and external audits for the ISO 27001:2013 certification of the Exchange of Information centre, to meet international information security management standards.”
The NUJ National President had earlier told the FIRS boss that the visit of the union was part of his resolve to engage critical institutions as a key stakeholders in mapping out the way forward for the country’s collective good.
