The Nigeria Customs Service and 62 other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government would end its direct revenue collection, according to the Presidential Committee on Tax Policy and Fiscal Reforms.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) would now be in charge of collecting money for the MDAs, in a statement by the Chairman of the Committee, Taiwo Oyedele, who appeared on Channels Television's Sunrise Daily breakfast program on Wednesday.
Oyedele, a former Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), claimed that while Nigeria collects some of the lowest amounts of tax revenue globally, doing so comes at a great cost.
“Ironically, our cost of collection is one of the highest. And the reason for that is that we’ve got all manners of agencies. The Federal Government alone, we have 63 MDAs that were given revenue targets last year, no; actually in the 2023 budget,” he said.
“And two things that would come up from that: on one hand, these agencies are being distracted from doing their primary function which is to facilitate the economy. Number two, they were not set up to collect revenue, so, they won’t be able to collect revenue efficiently.
“So, move those revenue collection function to the FIRS. It has two advantages: the cost of collection and efficiency will improve, these guys will focus on their work, and the economy will benefit as a result.
Asked for clarity on his comments, Oyedele said, “If you are Customs, focus on trade facilitation, border protection and if you are NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), just regulate telecommunications. You are not set up to collect revenue.
“It can be your revenue and someone else can collect it for you. There will be more transparency because you see what is being collected and is accounted for properly. It is also a way of holding ourselves to account as to how we spend the money we collect from the people.”
