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 urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to aim for a tax revenue target of N30 trillion by 2024.
The committee made this known when FIRS Chairman Zacch Adedeji led a team from the agency to an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance to discuss the service’s operational budget until 2024.
Senator Sani Musa, Chairman of the Committee, stated at the service’s 2024 operational budget defence session that the nation has lost over 17 trillion naira in five years as a result of tax waivers.
Adedeji, for his part, pledged that the nation’s tax rules would be changed in the coming weeks to reflect the new realities of the times. He spoke against the backdrop of the finance committee’s proposals to fundamentally overhaul the country’s tax administration, owing primarily to the volatility of the foreign currency rate.
With a forecast tax collection of 19 trillion naira, up from 12 trillion naira, the FIRS boss revealed intentions by the service to increase collection without raising taxes.
He said that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) new N2.7 trillion tax credit for road building in the country should be halted.