The Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr. Muhammad Nami yesterday received the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Her Excellency, Catriona Laing CB, as well as staff of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, who paid a courtesy visit to the Revenue House.
“It was an opportunity to speak to areas of shared interests, as well as share our appreciation for the gains achieved through our partnerships in intelligence sharing courtesy the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) with the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions.”
“With the AEOI, Nigeria has raked in millions of dollars in tax revenue—and I can say this has been happening on a monthly basis for some time now.”
Nami appreciated those that made the arrangement possible. “It is the way to go. We assure not only the UK government but the entire international community and those that are signatory to the arrangement, that as we come across any information that will help in their country’s abilities to assess those that do business in Nigeria, we will provide the necessary intelligence to them.”
“As Nigerians are aware, our collection last year was about N6.4trillion—the highest sum ever collected by the FIRS. This is not where we want to be, but at least we are shifting from where we used to be to a level that will be appreciated by not just the government of this country but by the international community.”
“One challenge we are working assiduously to deal with is blocking leakages in our tax administration system through the development and deployment of technology. We have brought this up previously with our partners at the HMRC. A major cause of revenue leakages is the issue of the fragmented tax administration system in the country.”
“It is important that we all come together—from the central, state and local government—to harmonize the tax system so that leakages can be reduced, and more revenue raised for the country.”
