NFIU Seeks State’s Internal Revenue Service Support On Tax Evasion

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is seeking collaboration of State Internal Revenue Services to address the challenges of tax avoidance and tax evasion.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, Hafsat Abubakar Bakari while speaking at the 1st National Revenue Assurance Summit between the NFIU and State Internal Revenue Services disclosed that the nation has entered a new fiscal a new fiscal era, that requires innovation and out of the box thinking to meet the needs of citizens.

“At the national and sub-national level, our collective ambition to grow the economy requires us to diversify the source of revenue available to government. We cannot afford to rely just on proceeds from the oil and gas industry. To build the schools we need, to educate our children, to provide effective healthcare, to build roads and bridges, to secure our communities, we recognise that our focus should shift towards internally generated revenue. Therefore, we need to have efficient and effective systems in place to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of the tax burden”. She said

Bakari explained that majority of tax crimes happens at the State level hence the Unit’s decision to help revenue Agencies at sub national levels to address the Challenge.

“To this end, our approach to working with States is built on the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which sets out the principles, objectives and limitations of the intelligence provided. We have also developed, using our in-house technical resources, a secure platform for requesting and receiving intelligence from the NFIU, the Crime Records Information Management System (CRIMS). Through CRIMS, we have entirely eliminated paper records which are prone to compromise, and we have robust audit mechanisms to ensure we are aware of who is asking for and who is receiving our intelligence”.

The Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax reform committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele called for a purposeful and coherent tax administration.

“We are talking about revenue assurance. We need to bear in mind that even the revenue itself is a means to an end not an end in itself. It must make meaningful impact on the lives, livelihood and wellbeing of the people for it to make sense”. Mr Oyedele said

“There could be pain and sacrifices, but it would be short term; medium to long term should benefit us. Our economy must be designed to be conducive and investment friendly. Our policy environment must be purposeful and coherent.

While lamenting the lack of data for effective policy formulation, Oyedele disclosed that the Federal Government may impose sanctions on government agencies that refuse sharing data with sister agencies on request.

“Let’s not be pulling in different directions- states versus federal or even within federal agencies”

“JTB told me as part of the work we are doing, the number of agencies they were looking for data, you know they were commending the NFIU and we are grateful for the NFIU and the leadership.

“A particular agency asked JTB to pay for data. I couldn’t believe it. In the same Nigeria? The government has data and the government is selling data and we say the government does not have revenue.

“How are we supposed to have revenue if we are selling data? So we drafted a law, it is not your data, it is our data, you will give it. In fact we will give you a deadline of 48 hours if you don’t release data, there will be consequences. We are criminalizing it. Give the data.

“We are developing the protocol to ensure that there is integrity, data protection and those stuff is not a problem but give the data. So we are bringing that data for Nigeria”, Oyedele said.

The 1st National Revenue Assurance Summit between the NFIU and State Internal Revenue Services is organised in recognition of the importance of domestic resource mobilization to providing subnational governments with resources necessary to provide physical and social infrastructure that promotes growth, development and prosperity.

The inaugural summit is intended to provide a forum for the NFIU to engage with all State Internal Revenue Services and the Joint Tax Board on the most effective use of financial intelligence to boost revenue collection.

Olusola Akintonde