The NTP should not become a redundant policy document or reference tool only for academics. The NTP should be the "bible" that guides the thinking, formulation and execution of strategies relevant to taking tax administration at all levels (assessment, collection etc) and the tax system at large to optimum heights.
It is no longer news that "a new Chief Tax
Administrator" has been appointed for the nation. This is Mr.
Tunde Fowler, acting executive chairman of the Federal Inland
Revenue Service (FIRS). He has since settled down for business at
the FIRS. One of his first major actions was the meeting with
stakeholders to discuss the administration's mandate to
significantly improve tax collection levels at the FIRS. Different
options and strategies will be employed and deployed to actualize
this mandate.
Given Mr. Fowler's antecedents as the immediate past executive
chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), there is
reasonable confidence as well as expectation that together with his
team, he will deliver. However, it needs to be emphasised that the
drive to ramp up tax revenue collection capacity of FIRS would
naturally occur within a defined system.
One of the primary essence of the National Tax Policy (NTP) is that
it is expected to "provide a direction for Nigeria's tax
system and establish a framework that all stakeholders would
subscribe to and to which they would be held accountable."
This implies that whatever strategies and/or options adopted to
deliver the mandate of the new executive team at FIRS, such must be
reflective of the letter and spirit of the NTP.
Naturally, the adoption of the NTP in 2012 raised the following key
questions around Nigeria's tax system given that there are
existing tax legislation in operation within the polity.
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