Yemisi Izuora
The acting Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Sunday Ogungbesan, has said the agency will conduct mapping of companies operating in the country with a view to track taxes payable by them.
The exercise which FIRS intends to undertake with the Central Bank of Nigeria is coming as efforts are being made by government to improve on revenue generation of the country.
He disclosed that the agency generated N1.842 trillion or $9.3bn from taxes in the first half of the year.
Ogungbesan had last week observed that the figure was insignificant considering what was accruable into the nation’s treasury and that the numerous social, political and economic challenges confronting the nation had been impeding the flow of revenues into the federation account.
“We have oil but most of the foreign companies are not picking up our oil anymore because they have developed their own oil. Oil and gas which is key to the economy has not been doing too well.
This is as a result of many factors. Many of these are completely outside our control. The price of oil in the international market has continued on the downward slide.
“Although it started gathering some momentum in the last three months. As at today, it is $59 per barrel. What is within our purview is basically what intervention we can make to shore up the revenues in the non-oil sector,” he told the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
He said the FIRS was currently working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with a view to developing a platform that would allow access to the records of every company in the country.
Furthermore, he said the agency was expecting a presidential directive to begin the implementation of luxury tax, which he said was introduced by the previous administration.
“The last government was looking for means of financing the 2015 budget and so, introduced a lot of new taxes called surcharge on air tickets for those flying business class on international routes.
“We were supposed to start in the middle of July and we have written the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) already. We also look at those who own private jets, furniture, mansion and others.
“Regrettably we have not been able to administer these because of some challenges. We raised assessment on 130 private jet owners.
“There are some of them with platforms at airport but their records show that they have private jets. We want to meet with the new government to know the fate of the tax on luxury items,” he said.
Senate president Bukola Saraki had said that Nigeria’s over dependence on oil could no longer be a way forward for the country as he canvassed the need to look at the area of taxes, which he said would be more stable and reliable.