Buhari tells FIRS to fully digitalise tax collection

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday urged the Federal Inland Revenue to quixkly and fully digitalise its revenue collection processes in order to minimise base erosion and profit shifting by taxable private and public organisations.

The President stated that he has issued an order to ministries, departments, agencies and business outfits to allow the FIRS access their systems for purposes of tax collection.

In his address as the Special Guest of Honour at the First Annual National Tax Dialogue organized by the FIRS at the old Banquet Hall, Aso Rock Villa Abuja. The theme of the dialogue was “Taxation in a post-Covid Economy”,.Buhari maintained that FIRS’s quick digitalization of the tax collection process would be in the interest of the nation.

He maintained: “I have directed all government agencies and business enterprises to grant FIRS access to their systems for seamless connection.

“We all are now living in a fast digitalising world. As such, business transactions are continually being migrated from “brick and mortar” locations to digital places or spaces.

“It is therefore incumbent upon tax authorities to adopt digital means to efficiently track taxable transactions for the purpose of collecting taxes. In order to provide the necessary legislative framework for the adoption of technology in tax administration, we also made necessary amendments to the FIRS Establishment Act in the Finance Act 2020.”

Speaking at the occasion, President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Akinwunmi Adesina, in his keynote address gave assurances that the AfDB would support the FIRS to modernise the tax collection processes in Nigeria through capacity building.

Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.on her part, outlined efforts of government so far in aiding small and medium scale enterprises overcome challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that the amended Finance Act of the National
Assembly would help the.affecred businesses to recover quickly.

According to her, tax compliance was key to national prosperity, stressing that government was determined to minimise the incidence of tax dodging through suck leakages as cross-border transactions through maximum use of technology.

The Finance Minister urged the audience to generously contribute their ideas during the dialogue in order to improve the nation’s tax system.