FG blames poor revenue on corruption, leakages

The federal government has blamed Nigeria’s poor revenue generation on leakage and corruption in the nation’s tax system.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, made the remark yesterday at the 24th annual Tax Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) yesterday in Abuja with the theme: ‘Global Disruption, Taxation and Digitalisation: Implications For SocioEconomic Development’.

Represented by the Executive Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammed Nami,

Osinbajo harped on the need for the digitalization of Nigeria’s economy towards placing it among the topranked economies in the world.

According to him, the issues concerning insecurity, crimes and all other criminalities can only be tackled if there is adequate revenue in the hands of the government to cater for the needs of the citizenry.

He added that President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021 directed all stakeholders, including government ministry departments and agencies to support the Tax Automation drive of the FIRS in assessing their data processing systems.

The CITN’s president, Mr. Adesina Adedayo, tasked all tax professionals to be solution providers in mitigating challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chairman, Annual Tax Conference Committee, Mrs. Ruth Arokoyo, said that for Nigeria to remain relevant, “there is the need to compete globally without the interruption of distance but with the use of technology. On the other hand, the global pandemic, COVID-19 pandemic has altered business transactions across the globe, causing business communities to adopt technology to mitigate against the effect occasioned by the pandemic.”