…says no introduction of new taxes
By Our Correspondent
The Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji , has allayed fears of Nigerians on possible introduction of new taxes through proposed tax reform laws .
Adedeji who allayed the fear during an interactive session with members of the Senate Committee on Finance in Abuja on Tuesday, specifically assured Nigerians, that the tax reform laws, would not entail introduction of new taxes or increase of already existing ones.
“Tax reform will not introduce any taxes or increase percentage of existing ones but reduce number of taxes being paid by Nigerians.
“No agency will be merged in the process of carrying out the reform and no job will be taken from anybody.
“The Tax reform basically seeks to increase simplicity and efficiency of tax administration in Nigeria”, he said.
He further allayed the fears of Nigerians that the existing tax policies introduced by President Bola Tinubu are not meant to tax poverty, but prosperity, fruits and not seeds, returns and not investments.
On the executive bills already forwarded to both chambers of the National Assembly for legalising the reform, the FIRS boss said “the four bills which are (i) Nigeria Tax Bill, ( ii) Nigeria Tax Administration Act (amendment) bill, (iii) Nigeria Revenue Service Bill and (iv) Joint Revenue Board (establishment) bill; when passed into law, would among others; help to harmonize the multiple tax laws in the country.
“Drive efficiency and modernization, simplify tax laws and ensure synergy among agencies involved, increase efficiency and effectiveness in government savings, promote transparency and integrity in revenue collection, align with international standards, broaden Nigeria’s tax base, etc”.
See also Dangote Refinery makes case for 100% Nigerian crude …as Senate probes alleged sabotage in petroleum industry By Our Correspondent The Dangote Refinery has made passionate appeal to the Senate, NNPCL, NUPRC, NDMPRA and other stakeholders in the industry to help supply the refinery its crude oil need 100 per cent from Nigeria. Group Strategy Officer, Dangote Refinery, Aliyu Suleiman made the appeal at the Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing alleged economic sabotage in petroleum industry at the Senate Complex, Abuja on Wednesday. He said right now, the refinery bought about 50 million barrels of crude out of which about 60% comes from NNPC. Mr. Suleiman who expressed gratitude to NNPC for their support, added that, essentially, all they are asking is for them to get their crude requirement from Nigeria 100%. “Let's be very clear, we are happy to pay fair prices. We hope that we'll work with the regulator and we'll get their support so that the refinery can get 100% of its crude from Nigeria and buy the crude from companies that produce it in Nigeria not from international middlemen. “We count on support of the committee, the regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the refinery succeeds, because if it does, aside from the other obvious benefits, like forex generation, job creation and the rest, most importantly, there is the psychological benefit of making, giving Nigerians, Africa in general, the confidence that we can succeed. Giving a progress update on the refinery, Mr. Suleiman said since the refinery started full trial production in January and then full time production started in March, we processed about 50 million barrels of crude. “We have produced about five million tons of petroleum products. And these petroleum products have been sold to various parts of the country and Jet oil has been sold in Europe since May. He said other products have been sent to places as far as Asia, US, Brazil, and so on. So the refinery has been making a lot of progress. He emphasized the importance of deliberately protecting local industries for the over all economic development of the country. According to him, “the US, for example, has done that, to protect their own industries against attack by China that subsidize their own industries and then sends them to the US. So that's the first question. We want to urge the committee to consider if we deserve protection against them”. He posed three basic questions that revolved around protection of local industries for the consideration of the committee and Nigerians at large. The questions are: “Do local refineries deserve protection from NUPRC? “Should Nigeria protect its infant industries in order to improve investment? “Should local refineries have preferential access to Nigerian crude? He said Dangote found itself competing against Russian products that were produced with oil that is valued at $60. “We all know that because of the cap that has been put Russian oil, the value of Russian oil today in the market is $60. And that's what Russia is using to produce their products and those products are being sent in large quantities into Africa to compete with products that are produced in refineries that buy crude at $90. “We don't think this will be a fair competitive environment and I think that when you have such unfair competition, it is normal to put protective measures. “I think even in the animal world, the moment a new baby is born, they don't just go and leave it out in the wild. “What we want is to sell more of our products in Nigeria, because we believe we can do that, we can compete. And even though there are concerns that have been expressed around monopoly, that is a problem that has been identified. The right thing to do is to say, how do we address this problem? If monopoly is a risk, how do we address this risk while at the same time ensuring that we protect our domestic industries? The good thing is that in the PIA, there are provisions around that, you can monitor and take action if you feel there's monopoly.
When asked to explain why FIRS, as contained in one of the bills, would be changed to Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), the Chief Tax Collector said the present name of the agency does not cover the scope of its services, like the Value Added Tax (VAT), 85% of which according to him, are remitted to states while the federal government gets the remaining 15%.
In his remarks , the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Sani Musa (Niger East) said the purpose of the interactive session was to be updated by the FIRS boss on what and what the tax reform bills are aiming at.
“Tax reforms lie at the heart of government agenda and requires constructive inputs from all stakeholders”, he said.
He commended the FIRS boss for meeting up with revenue targets set in the fiscal year but also urged him to go beyond the target.
Many members of the committee like Senators Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West), Osita Isunazo (Imo West), Ahmed Wadada (Nasarawa West), also commended the FIRS boss on increased revenue generation by the agency, particularly non-oil revenue.
