Governors to wedge tax leakages, enhance IGR generation

Under the supervision of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, the 36 state governors of Nigeria have started a workshop on plugging tax leaks and enhancing internally produced income.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, made the news during yesterday’s governors’ meeting, which was termed “the 8th IGR Peer Learning Event and Launch of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Public Finance Database.”

Fayemi stressed that, “we have seen total IGR of states grow from N1.31 trillion in 2019, to N1.67 trillion in 2021, and the share of IGR, as a percentage of total recurrent revenue, grew from 31 per cent in 2019 to 35% in 2021. While this is good progress, we must not lose sight of the need to sustain and advance the momentum of reforms, considering the decline in FAAC receipts.”Information Guide Nigeria

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The governor also noted how governors made the decision to be frantic with the reorganisation of well-organized and beneficial tax management in 2019.

The general restructure, he continued, was focused on suspending complex taxation knowledge and modern revenue services, including adoption of a taxpayer-centric background that will ease taxpayers’ obedience and promote the readily available common agreement.

He also added that, “Beyond the laws and regulations we have passed, we must occasionally, by policy, respond to the fast-changing tax environment if we must stay ahead of evasion and avoidance tactics, recognise the need to support our internal revenue services and continue to empower them with the necessary political support and financial resources required for them to execute their mandate effectively,” he clarified.

Speaking on ways of improving their income support, he said, “Broadly, we must seek out ways to expand the tax net and improve our taxpayers’ database. This will require ending the proliferation of taxpayers’ identification numbers and databases. It is pertinent that we harmonise leveraging a unique identification number, as is global best practice.”

He, therefore, pointed out that, “for us to achieve this, information sharing between jurisdictions must be seamless, not only between the tiers of government but also inter and intra-state. I would like to encourage the Joint Tax Board, in its pursuit of a plausible solution to this anomaly.”

Speaking on increased community suitability of tax generation, he emphasised that, “we have improved the transparency not just around tax revenues, but the entire treasury. Today, our budgets and audited financial statements are not just publicly available, but also in citizen-friendly versions.

“This will be supported by the NGF Public Finance Database, which we will be launching today.

“A database that allows users to easily filter and analyse states’ fiscal data and information. We understand the need to build greater accountability, especially showing citizens the linkage between their taxes and service delivery.

“We are working with our revenue services and other MDAs to expand our tax-for-service initiatives, in rewarding compliance while ensuring citizens know where we expend their taxes annually,” the governor stressed.

“This database reiterates our commitment to fiscal transparency and accountability as well as our resolve to strengthen governance in the country. We welcome your continuous support.”JAMB Result

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