The Federal Inland Revenue Service has partnered with the Market Traders Association of Nigeria (MATAN) to collect and remit Value Added Tax (VAT) to the FIRS from the country’s markets, especially in the informal sector.
The association which has a membership of well over 40 million traders across the country is the biggest player in Nigeria’s market space.
The details of the FIRS’ partnership with MATAN was known at a ‘Stakeholders Engagement Programme on the VAT DIRECT Initiative’ held in Lagos on Wednesday, June 21.
The partnership will see the FIRS collaborating with the association to deploy technology to enumerate traders for collecting and remitting VAT to the Service, consequently leading to an expansion of the tax net and increased revenue for the country.
Speaking at the event, Executive Chairman of FIRS, Muhammad Nami, said the initiative was crucial to revenue generation and also to eliminating multiple taxation, especially from the informal sector.
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Nami, who is also the chairman of the Joint Tax Board, stated that the government is worried about the multiplicity of taxes, adding that the FIRS and JTB were working on various modalities of addressing the challenge.
He said the partnership has laid a good foundation for the government to address the issue of multiple taxation and extortion by tax officials, tax agents, and touts in the marketplace.
He further noted that the FIRS would collaborate with security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to deal with illegal tax collection by touts in markets.
Nami said: “One important area of our collaboration is the issue of providing adequate security in the markets. We are aware of the challenges that you have faced in the past with miscreants, self-imposed tax collection agents, and touts.
“I want to assure you that as part of this initiative, we will be collaborating with the relevant security agencies particularly the Nigeria Police Force to tackle all forms of touting and illegal tax collection by miscreants and keep them away from your markets.”
The FIRS stated that the success of the collaboration would lead to increased revenue for the country, and in turn, provide the government the needed resources to fund infrastructure and other social amenities.
Nami said to ensure transparency and accountability of the project operations, a combined monitoring and evaluation team comprising both organisations would be formed.
The FIRS chairman, at the event, unveiled an identity card which would be given to each trader upon enumeration.
The card contains their tax identification number and other personal details.
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