Hard times await tax evaders this year, the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS) has said.
The agency has launched a national intelligence gathering system
to prevent tax evasion.
The system will gather data that will be used to expose tax
evaders.
FIRS Executive Chairman Muhammad Nami stated this on Wednesday
in Abuja during a visit to the Independent Corrupt Practices and
Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman, Prof. Bolaji
Owasanoye.
Nami added that the service is restructuring its system to
enable it surpass its 2020 revenue target.
He said: “The intelligence gathering system is Information and
Communication Technology (ICT)-based and is being implemented in
close collaboration with the ICPC and other anti-corruption
agencies as well as financial institutions to tackle economy-based
crimes, including money laundering.”
Nami explained that the FIRS is improving it’s “collaboration
with the ICPC to track tax fraud and block all revenue leakages to
ensure that we raise the revenue for the government to fund its
budget. We need the data and intelligence which you have to help us
track tax evaders and bring them into the tax net”.
Prof. Owasanoye said the ICPC was open to share data with the
FIRS to track tax evaders, defaulters and tackle illicit financial
flow in Nigeria to raise the revenue profile of the government.
“The collaboration between the FIRS and the ICPC is very
important to Nigeria. One of the cardinal objectives of this Board
of the ICPC is to widen the tax net. When we come across any
company that is not tax compliant, we refer such companies to the
FIRS. We have referred over 500 companies to FIRS. We want them to
be captured in the tax net so that they continue to pay their
taxes,” he added.
Nami said the FIRS Board had approved many reform projects,
which the Management of FIRS tabled before it, noting that
repositioning the service is being anchored on four cardinal
pillars, namely, “rebuilding FIRS’ institutional framework, robust
collaboration with stakeholders, building a customer
(Taxpayer)-centric and data-centric institution.”