The Senate has condemned the seventeen trillion naira loss incurred by the country on tax waivers within the last five years.
The Senate Committee on Finance, led by Senator Sani Musa made an objection on Monday to the allegedly abused tax waivers during the 2024 budget presentation of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.
Musa charged the FIRS chairman that tax waivers abuse which had cost the country about seventeen trillion naira loss within the last five years should be suspended and substituted with rebating system.
“As impressive and encouraging the performance and projections of FIRS are, under your leadership, this committee and by extension, the Senate, on a serious note, urge you to look at the direction of tax waivers largely being abused with attendant and avoidable losses being incurred on yearly basis .
” Available records show that within the last five years, about N17trillion have been lost by the country to tax waivers. It should be suspended and possibly substituted with rebating system.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of FIRS, Zacch Adedeji, who made projection of nineteen point four trillion naira as targeted total tax collection for 2024, insisted that the fresh two point seven trillion naira tax credit planned for road construction in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, be stopped .
The committee, therefore, urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, to suspend the tax waivers being largely abused and substitute it with a rebating system.
He said: “President Bola Tinubu has seen the issue of multiple taxation as a pool of problems, that is why he set up the presidential committee on tax reforms and fiscal policy.
“As of today in Nigeria, we have 62 types of taxes being collected. The sad news about that is that less than eight of the entire 62, accounted for 97 per cent of the collection.
“We are already consulting and engaging the state government on it At the end of the day, we won’t have more than eight or nine taxes that the state and federal government would be collecting.”
On the controversy trailing the implementation of tax credit scheme for road construction by CBN, the FIRS boss insisted that the N2.5trillion earlier committed to it must be fully implemented before thinking of any fresh one.
“Regarding tax credit, what I said was that the programme is laudable but that the N2.5trillion being spent on it by NNPC Limited should be exhausted before bringing fresh request.
“N2.7trillion fresh request being made should not be entertained because all NNPC revenue should not be spent on roads when the ministry of works is there,” Adedeji said.
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