FIRS reiterate call on eligible citizens to pay tax

Babatunde Fowler, Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has reiterated call on eligible citizens to ensure adequate payment of tax to government for enhanced revenue generation.

Fowler gave the advice during the 6th Edition of the Nigerian Youth Leadership Summit themed ‘Mentoring and Building Leadership Capacity for Good Governance’ on Thursday in Abuja.

Represented by Mr Ahmed Buba, FIRS Deputy Director Training, Fowler said that taxation was a social contract between government and tax payers where citizens played significant roles in raising revenue for government.

“By paying taxes, government will similarly have a strong motivation to account for revenues collected and utilization of such revenues.

“Voluntary compliance by the tax payer will ensure that revenue is made available for improving on the provision of social amenities and services,” he said.

According to him, while the amount generated may be significant, it was grossly inadequate to tackle infrastructural and technological needs of the country.

He said that the amount was inadequate when compared to the amount actually needed for government development.

Fowler said that he was glad the non-oil sector of the economy made up 53.62 per cent of the 5.3 trillion generated in 2018.

“In the past it used to be more money coming from the oil sector but today we are happy to say we have more money coming from the non-oil sector of the economy.

“This is a reflection of the efforts of the government to reduce oil dependency,” he said.

Dele Omoyeni, Convener of the event said that the aim of the summit was to examine the effect and importance of being mentored in order to effectively lead.

Our correspondent reports that the Nigerian Youth Leadership Summit is an initiative that takes place once every year and had been in existence since 2014.