The Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS has created 35 additional Tax Audit Units in the country to tackle illicit financial flow out of Nigeria and improve tax compliance rate in the country.
The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Nami, in a statement made available to ait.live thumbs up to some multinational corporations for paying their taxes as and when due, he, however, expressed worry that many rich Multinational Corporations do not pay the right taxes due from them, let alone pay their taxes voluntarily.
Nigeria was “reported to have lost over US$178 billion (about N5.4 trillion at today’s rate) through tax evasion by Multinationals” doing business in the country.
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Nami cited a 2014 report by the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, which stated that “Nigeria accounted for 30.5% of the money lost by the continent through illicit financial flows.
He further stated that with the signing of the 2021 budget of N13.588 trillion on 31st December 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari and given the recent decline of oil resources, “which had been the major revenue earner for the country, taxation is expected to continue to shoulder the Government’s Budget performance the way it did in 2020.
(Editor; Abaje Usekwe)
