From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control ( NAFDAC) Kebbi State office, has urged the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to expedite actions on the processing and validation of Tax Identification Number (TIN) of manufacturers in the state.
State Coordinator of the agency,Mr. Muyideen Folorunsho Suleiman stated this during the Management Staff of NAFDAC visit to FIRS headquarters, Birnin Kebbi.
Suleiman noted that most of the NAFDAC clients are illiterate and ignorant of the procedures needed to comply with the government policy mandatory them to access their online accounts of NAFDAC application portal.
According to him, “unfortunately, because of the aforementioned status of these clients,many of our new applicants and majorities of those applying for license renewer have been unable to do so due to non-availability of the TIN number.
“While a few of them complained that they have visited your office once or twice but they have not succeeded in either getting their TIN numbers processed or activated/validated.
“Please,note that ,late license renewer in NAFDAC attract a very high administrative charges which translate to extra cost for these categories of applicants.
“We appeal for your assistance and support to help in the task of keeping the businesses of these down-trodden Nigerians alive and sustaining the employment of their work force.”
Earlier, Chairman of Association of Table Water Producers(ATWAP) Birnin Kebbi Local Government,Alhaji Aliyu Babangida Bande also narrated that their members were finding it difficult to get their TIN numbers activated.
In his response, the Tax Controller of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIR) Headquarters, Birnin Kebbi,Alhaji Isa Abubakar declared the readiness of the revenue services to render the required assistance to the NAFDAC clients to ease their businesses challenges.
He noted that activation of TIN numbers could only be done by individual manufacturer not through group of manufacturers stressed that, manufacturer should come to the FIR office individually to processing their tax Identification numbers.
Abubakar also informed them that many manufacturers after registration of their companies didn’t inform the FIR office that they have commenced operations , so that their TINs could be immediate activated and validated.
He added that the revenue services didn’t activate Tax Identification numbers at the point of companies registration to avoid multiple taxation stressed that,the manufacturers must always notifies them immediately they kick off production.
However,both Mallam Hussaini Auta and Mr. Buhari Galadima from NAFDAC office Birnin Kebbi, informed the FIR Services management that many of the agency clients have collected their companies certificates from the tax revenue services with notification that their TIN numbers have been activated, yet,they couldn’t access their accounts with NAFDAC.
In his reaction, Mr. Najib Faruk of FIR services attributed the challenges of activation of TIN to poor network, migration problems and office challenges.
He added that due to ongoing migration of their system,both activation and registration of new tax Identification numbers might not be possible within two weeks.
Others at the visit include Alhaji Ana’s Qasim Baura and Aminu Musa Dan -Zuru who represented Master Bakery Association, among others.