GOVERNORS, FINANCE MINISTER, CALLS FOR TECH REVOLUTION TO BOOST REVENUE GENERATION

GOVERNORS, FINANCE MINISTER, CALLS FOR TECH REVOLUTION TO BOOST REVENUE GENERATION

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning have separately called for the deployment of technology in tax collection for improved internally generated revenue for States.

The Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, made the call while declaring open the 6th ‘IGR National Peer Learning’ meeting organized by the NGF in Abuja recently. He highlighted that the objective of the meeting was to deepen the drive for improved revenue generation at the state level through effective, efficient, fair and legal tax administration.

Fayemi observed that Covid-19, oil prices decline and social unrest, which echoed the demands of the #ENDSARS protests, have further worsened the country’s economic and social conditions. In his words, “This has exacerbated the already vulnerable fiscal environment for governments at both the national and sub-national levels, he stated. Other accompanying trends have included rise in inflation, degrading exchange rate and growing unemployment,” he bemoaned. He noted the need to improve government revenue to adequately service planned expenditures could not be over-emphasized.

The NGF Chairman regretted that the 2020 half-year IGR performance reported a negative growth of 11.7 per cent for the 36 states and the FCT. He, however, noted that Ebonyi, Gombe and Yobe States recorded more than 50 per cent in growth despite the overall decline.

He further stated, “At the state level, we are professionalizing our internal revenue services to be taxpayer-centric and responsive to the new normal of digitalizing tax administration. The world’s trade and financial markets are going digital, and we must adapt or be left behind. We are not canvassing or proposing for new taxes to be introduced but emphasizing the need for our Internal Revenue Service to be more strategic, innovative, and pragmatic in administering those taxes, fees, levies and charges that have been legally prescribed for collection across various jurisdictions. Pivotal to the success of these series of reforms is taxpayer enumeration, which is still very much weak. While technology presents us with a platform to strengthen our taxpayer databases, we must collaborate, share data, intelligence and information, and embrace advanced taxpayer profiling techniques to inform our approach to taxpayer information management.”

On her part, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said the impact of Covid-19 on the economic and fiscal revenue outlook for 2021 presented a significant opportunity for states to strategize and reposition their fiscal revenue management.

She noted, “In the area of tax administration, the government is leveraging on technology and digitalization to drive revenue mobilization, data management and cost optimization. Technology is also being used for the purpose of assessing and collecting stamp duty and for the automation of VAT collections in banking and telecommunications sectors with more sectors being explored, he concluded.”

According to her, fiscal reforms are important now, more than ever, to mitigate against the current and possible future global crises. She observed that revenue outlook for 2021 will largely depend on the willingness of state governments to embrace the right tools, technology, and strategies to transform, enhance and strengthen revenue growth and sustainability, and adopt cost optimization plans.