The National Tax Policy Review Committee has called for the merging of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in order to improve revenue generation and better accountability.
Mr Taiwo Oyedele, the West Africa Tax Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, presented a draft of the policy at the second stakeholders meeting held yesterday in Abuja.
Oyedele said the committee agreed that the current system promoted multi-taxation, tax evasion and wastage.
The new policy also stated that FIRS and Customs should be merged and also all revenue generating agencies at the federal level should be merged into one.
Mr Oyedele also said the current structure is ineffective because there is duplication in the collection mechanism. All the structures at FIRS are replicated in Customs, this makes cost of collection more expensive.
According to him, the current system enables tax payers to evade payment and also manipulate payment.
“You can provide information for Customs and Firs is unaware of it. Having one revenue agency will flag all the information about a tax payer when the person is paying tax. It will also ensure all loopholes are blocked,hence the reason we are recommending merger as part of the policy.”
Tax Amnesty Programme was also recommended by the committee as some companies or individuals might not be willing to join the tax net for fear of been asked to pay the past tax liabilities
Other important recommendations of the draft policy include the establishment of Taxation Committee at national and state assemblies, administrative framework for amnesty and whistle blowing.
The chairman of the committee, Prof. Abiola Sanni said the need to improve revenue generation in the economy influenced the decisions of the committee.