The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it collected N659.1 billion as Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2011, representing 400 per cent increase from the N163.3 billion collected in 2004.
Mr. Kabir Mashi, the FIRS’s acting Executive Chairman, made this known on Monday during its nationwide VAT enlightenment campaign in Aba, Abia.
He stressed that VAT was the third highest contributor to tax revenues in the past eight years behind Petroleum Profits Tax and Company Income Tax.
Represented by Mr Jombo Olasehinde, the FIRS South Zonal Coordinator, Government Business Tax Office (GBTO), Mashi said that revenue from VAT could still be improved upon.
He said that the review of Nigeria’s VAT Act would cater for any loophole in its current form.
“FIRS is aware of the challenges faced by taxpayers in complying with our VAT laws and this realisation is what is compelling review of our current VAT Act,” he said.
Mashi said that more educative forum would be provided for taxpayers on the nation’s VAT laws, adding interactive meetings would be held to proffer suggestions on the best possible way to improve tax administration and compliance in the country.
Dr Joe Udo-Inyang, the FIRS Aba Tax Controller, who represented Mr Onyedikachi Ihedioha, the FIRS Coordinating Director, Direct Report Group, said that more advocacy about paying ones taxes were still necessary.
He said that in spite of FIRS’s core drive for revenue, the agency still owed the public a duty to educate them on their rights, obligations and about the enabling national tax laws.
“It is in line with this desire that FIRS in 2010 created a Taxpayers Service Policies, Processes and Programmes Department (TSPPPD),” he said.