On Monday, the Senate Committee on Finance protested the loss of N17 trillion due to tax waivers during the last five years.
The committee also recommended the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to set a tax revenue target of N30 trillion by 2024.
The committee announced this when FIRS Chairman Zacch Adedeji led an agency delegation to an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance to examine the service’s operational budget through 2024.
Senator Sani Musa, Chairman of the Committee, remarked at the service’s 2024 operational budget defence session that tax waivers have cost the country more than N17 trillion in the previous five years.
Adedeji, for his part, promised that the country’s tax laws would be revised in the coming weeks to reflect the new realities of the times. He remarked in the context of the finance committee’s proposals to fundamentally reform the country’s tax administration, owing particularly to the volatility of the foreign currency rate.
With a projected tax collection of 19 trillion naira, up from 12 trillion naira, the FIRS chairman said that the service intends to enhance collection without raising taxes.
He said that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new N2.7 trillion tax credit for road construction in the country should be suspended.
