From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has said that judicious utilisation of public funds will spur citizens to be faithful in tax payment.
FIRS’s Director of Emerging and Special Taxes, Amina Ado, stated this at a summit on taxation tagged: ‘Government to Citizen interface: Tax in the Present Day Nigeria,’ yesterday in Abuja.
“The federal government has so many responsibilities that it is the only one that does them. Thus, it has to find a way to execute all these projects so that people can see them clearly.
“It is not just the hard infrastructure but also run the economy in a way that there will be confidence for people to invest because it is only when they invest that we can get the taxes.
“We, also, need to make sure that funds are used judiciously and in a way that will reduce the cost of governance.
“If you look at the federal budget, when you take out what the executive and other arms will spend, it is not that much, we need to create more trust and an environment where Nigerians are willing, are able to invest and are excited to be Nigerians,” she said.
She added that the FIRS was not the agency that spends the tax collected but it is to administer taxes, adding that citizens in turn need to hold political office holders accountable.
“It is the citizens that have to hold political office holders accountable and they hold us accountable for delivering on our target, they have given us a target of 10.4trn.
“If Nigerians need to know what their tax is being used for, the budget office website is there, they release a quarterly budget implementation report, they can engage with it.
‘During the budget process, the budget office also releases what they called a citizen guide to the budget,” she added.
Convener of summit, Bode Gbore, said there was need for the federal government to rebrand the unity of purpose to build a better Nigeria.
Gbore, who is the Senior Special Adviser on Political Matters to the President, Bode Gbore, said the event was organized to open the channel of direct conversations between the government and citizens and it has proven that Nigerians are interested in making contributions to the development and well being of the nation.
He said: “Knowing that the job of Nation Building, is an assignment for all, I found the need to create a bridge between these classes.
“A medium of dialogue for all, a place of conversations that will rebrand the unity of purpose, to continue to build Nigeria, together.
“In the year 2020, we began to open that channel of direct conversations between the Government and the Nigerian Citizens. From Parastatals to her Stakeholders, to States and their Citizens.
“This channel, tagged, the G2C Interface (Government to Citizens Interface), has proven since then, that Nigerian people, home and abroad, are deeply interested in making contributions to the development and well-being of their Nation.
“We do not know it all! We can not know, first hand, what the experiences of Nigerians are, from Jalingo to Awka, from Ilesa to Maiduguri. Except as we create a stage where these experiences are shared and necessary actions are taken.
“There are roles, to constructively criticize the government policies, there are roles for suggestions of better policies, better solutions, better ways to execute plans, and so on.”
This drive, puts all hands on deck and has proven that Nigeria belongs to us all.
Today, at this edition of G2C Interface, we have brought the Federal Inland Revenue Service to the table with the Nigerian people, especially, the Stakeholders in the Tax Field.