The Chairman, Joint Tax Board (JTB), Mr. Babatunde Fowler, says the board is set to capture 40 million Nigerians outside its tax net by March, next year.
Fowler, who is also the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS) gave the new target in Sokoto on Monday during a courtesy visit to the Sultan of Sokoto, Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III in his palace.
He said those not captured in the tax net were various individuals, adding ” we would have captured at least 75 per cent by March 2018.”
According to Folwer, the process is being driven with technology to promote effective implementation of e-payment channels.
He told Sultan that the Board was fast moving alongside modernity to further simplify its operations as well stimulate states to improve on their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
“We are in active collaboration and synergy not only to increase revenue but to strengthen the capacity for better services,” he said.
The JTB chairman told the royal father that the Board was established in 1961 and it’s holding its meeting in Sokoto. He said it is saddled with the primary role of administering and managing income tax as well ensuring uniformity and harmonise relevant operational processes across the country.
He appealed to Sultan Abubakar to support the board in projecting the need for public compliance with tax payments, noting that traditional institutions played significant roles in tax collection in the past.
“You are a rallying point to rely on. We want you to speak to your subjects and other traditional institutions and rulers as well Nigerians to join and cooperate with the Board and relevant organs for tax payment compliance,” Fowler said.
In his remarks, Sultan Abubakar recalled that traditional institutions were vocal and active in tax collection system and processes, noting that there was an appreciable level of compliance from their subjects.
The monarch however, noted that the Board and other relevant bodies on tax operations must redouble their efforts by convincing Nigerians on why they should pay tax.
“There is need to device a strategic framework for diplomacy, trust and fear of God to impeccably convince an average Nigerian to see it as a necessary responsibility to pay tax.
“Most Nigerians, especially the poor, have divergent perceptions and misconceptions about not only paying the tax but how same revenues are being used.
“Their trust faded with their perceptions. Some believe that there are loop holes and leaking pockets through which the revenues disappear because they don’t see any tangible thing being done with it”, he said.
He urged the Board and its organs to re-examine their operations and ensure that appropriate penalties were put in place against evaders.
He said: “Rich people should be made to pay more tax than the poors and must be made to pay the real tax not as they wish or bargained for.”