Multiple Taxes Force Investors to Import Goods — CITN Chairman
Kennedy Iwundu, Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) Abuja chapter, says multiple taxations by several government agencies force investors to resort to importation.
Iwundu said this at the CITN Week in Abuja on Thursday with the theme: “Tax Reforms Digitalisation and Its Impact on Doing Business In Nigeria.” According to him, some investors have decided to import instead of setting up companies for production because of multiple taxations.
He said as tax professionals, there was a need to put up discussions on the current tax system and proffer solutions which should be forwarded for tax law reforms. He said a situation where the Federal, State, and Local Government Areas, each have a long list of taxes and levies to collect was inimical to business growth.
He said such multiple taxations usually discouraged foreign and local investments in the Nigerian economy. He said the current tax system which had multiple Federal taxes such as company income tax, and levy on profit of companies apart from other sectorial collections posed serious problems to investors.
He commended President Bola Tinubu for suspending the telecom tax and green tax, by setting up a committee to look into tax reforms so as to ensure that multiple taxation was eliminated. He said the move would also ensure that tax laws and administration conformed with Nigeria’s tax policy.
He said the Nigeria tax collection had become a crucial policy of the government impact of tax reforms and digitalisation on government income in Nigeria, describing it as great and positive one.
“In 2022, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) generated N10.1 Trillion revenue which has been recorded as the highest in the history of the country.
” This is attributed to the impact of tax reforms and tax digitalisation. One of the reforms and digitalisation initiative is the introduction of an administrative automation system by FIRS called Amanda.
This, according to him, has now been replaced by Taxpromax, adding that the finance Act introduced tax reforms which empower FIRS to deploy digitalisation for revenue administration and collection.
