The Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated far-reaching measures to boost revenue base, curb significant revenue challenges and maintain debt sustainability. This is just as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it collected N6.4 trillion revenue in 2021, the highest ever realised.
Some of the measures include the imposition of Excise Duty of N10/litre on all nonalcoholic, carbonated and sweetened beverages. Although the Federal Government explained that the essence is “to discourage excessive consumption of sugar in beverages which contributes to diabetes, obesity,” the real import of the action is to improve its revenue base.
Also, those who have formed the habit of consuming soft drinks are likely to pay more to sustain their habits.
In the same vein, a new ‘sugar tax’ has been introduced to raise excise duties and revenues for health-related and other critical expenditures (in line with the 2022 Budget’s priorities).
Already, the FIRS has been empowered to sanction non-compliant taxpayers refusing access to IT systems.
In this regard, “FIRS may deploy both proprietary and third-party tech applications to collect information from taxpayers; enhance confidentiality and nondisclosure by FIRS staff of taxpayers’ confidential data”.
The tax agency is now empowered to penalise data breaches by noncompliant FIRS staff and also provide safeguards to protect taxpayers’ data and provide sanctions to enhance the ongoing ICT and tax administration reforms to increase revenue generation.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed disclosed this at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Act, Wednesday in Abuja.
Mrs. Ahmed admitted that the Federal Government still captures petroleum subsidy in the 2022 budget from January to June and that a decisive decision would be taken from July 2022. According to her, the government has to obey the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which prohibits subsidies on all petroleum products including petrol. She affirmed that already, there is no subsidy on kerosene and diesel, stressing that government would follow suit on petrol.
The FIRS chairman, Muhammad Nami said with the assistance of technology, the agency has been able to perform optimally, resulting in the contribution of over 70 per cent revenue to the government’s coffers from non-oil sector. Also, the Federal Government recorded N1.104 trillion independent revenue as of November 2021 compared to about N200 billion earned in 2016.
This was disclosed by the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze at the public presentation and breakdown of the highlights of the 2022 Appropriation Act.
“As of November 2021, the Federal Government recorded N1.1 trillion independent revenue, indicating that this line of revenue will do better in future”, Akabueze said.
