Ayodele Olalere
The Chairman, Joint Tax Board, Mr Tunde Fowler has said the South West part of the country generates 46% of the revenue of the federal government.
He made the revelation at official flag off of the new National Tax Identification Number, TIN, registration system by the Federal Inland Revenue, FIRS, and the Joint Tax Board, JTB, today in Lagos.
The event was attended by Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The new TIN allows taxpayers to initiate TIN registration from the comfort of their homes and offices through a TIN mobile application, and print their tax certificate.
The application also enables taxpayers to locate the nearest tax office, and manage their account.
At the unveiling of the new registration system today at the Civic Centre, Lagos, Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the issue of Identity Management (IM), which the state and other states of the federation has been grappling with over the years, have now been address by the new reform.
“Identity Management [IM] has and is still a major challenge in virtually all spheres of activities in our country and tax administration is no exception. It is therefore not surprising that many states including Lagos have tried to address the issue through one scheme or the other. The reality however is that no matter how sophisticated or cutting-edge these sub-national schemes are, they are sub-optimal and most likely lack cross-border acceptability and recognition.
The new JTB National TIN Registration System is a welcome addition to a slate of reforms focused on taking identity management and tax administration in Nigeria to the next level” he said.
“It is generally agreed that Nigeria’s tax revenues continue to underperform their actual potential. In fact, our tax-to-GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world at less than 7%; this is considerably low even by the standards of similarly emerging economies.
It thus goes to show that there is still a lot of room for improvement and this laudable initiative we are flagging off today will go a long way towards bridging this deficit by capturing eligible tax payers within the tax net,”Sanwo-Olu added.
The governor further said Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of various states would be improved if they are able to identify number of tax payers in their state, adding ‘with improved tax revenues, the government can begin to wean itself from an overdependence on crude oil earnings.’
“Citizens are more inclined to hold their governments accountable and demand a higher quality of governance and service. It suffices to say that an improved tax collection and tax compliance drive is a win-win for the government and the governed.
Citizens everywhere in the world are constantly seeking easier ways of engaging with their governments and fulfilling their civic responsibilities. It is the duty of governments to respond to this need, by removing barriers that inhibit compliance,” Sanwo-Olu said.
“If we want our citizens to be compliant and pay their taxes, it is incumbent on us as the government to make it easier for them to do this. Technology is, in my opinion, the most important tool to actualize this.
This new Taxpayer Identification Number registration system demonstrates the transformative power of technology as a significant contributor to the ease of doing business reforms, both at the national level and sub national level; and more critically also aligns with our agenda of leveraging technology to drive change across various economic sectors.”
Earlier, the Chairman, Joint Tax Board, Mr Tunde Fowler, in his speech said the South West accounts for 45.6% of all Internally Generated Revenue of the federal government, adding with the new TIN registration system, it would be easier to generate more Reve for the government and identify tax payers.