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Create Alternative Sources Of Revenue, FIRS Tells State Governors

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Create Alternative Sources Of Revenue, FIRS Tells State Governors
The Federal Inland Revenue Service has advised state Governors to look inwards and create alternative sources of revenue away from depending on revenue from oil sources.
The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mohammad Nami, gave the advice at the 7th IGR Learning Event organised by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Wednesday, in Abuja.
Nami urged the government at all levels to ensure that citizens feel the impact of the collected tax in their areas of responsibility.
He said: “In plain truth, the future of crude oil as a major revenue earner is very bleak. Going forward, taxation remains the only sustainable source of revenue anywhere in the world – Nigeria is not an exception.”
Nami added that taxation remained the most veritable tool in addressing the imbalance between the “haves” and the “have nots” in society.
He said that the use of taxation was important in balancing the social-economic standing of citizens.
The executive chairman said that beyond that, tax was the contribution members of the society make for their leaders to provide them with social amenities in appropriate quantity and quality.
“The citizens should not just hear budget figures but must, within their immediate living quarters, feel, see and experience effects of tax revenue.
“Government at various tiers must, in view of the constitutional provisions, imbibe the culture of value-for-money or, put in proper perspective, value-for-tax-money,” he said.
According to him, tax is the price paid in anticipation of decent living conditions, adding that tax-compliant citizens can legitimately expect their leaders to provide them with necessary amenities for a ‘good life.
Nami said that section 16 (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) provides that “the state shall within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this Constitution, control the national economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity.”
In his remarks, NGF Chairman and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, said that state governments recorded marginal growth in the IGR between 2016 and 2019, but recorded a 3.4 percent decline in 2020.
Fayemi, who was represented by the NGF Director-General, Asishana Okauru, said that governments recorded a compound annual IGR growth of 12 per cent from N687 billion in 2015 to N1.21 trillion by 2020.
He attributed this to reforms embarked on by the NGF, which included “legal revisions, policy directives, institutional restructuring, and technological innovations to improve tax administrative processes and procedures.”