The Federal Government has called for a five-year jail term and, or a N5 million fine against any of its staff members convicted of failing to remit gross taxes, levies, and other revenues, especially where such is received into accounts not approved by the National Assembly.
This was contained in the new Finance Bill 2021, transmitted for approval of the parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari, as a plan to finance the 2022 budget, which National Assembly may approve this week before proceeding on its year-end break.
Highlights from the proposals, for which a public hearing was held by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on Monday include but not exhaustive, Five percent capital gains tax imposed on shares’ disposal transactions where gains exceed N500 million in 12 calendar months; inclusion of gaming, lottery and gambling companies within corporate tax net; imposition of taxes on oil & gas companies’ dividends as well as midstream & downstream oil and gas companies.
The proposed legislation also seeks to empower Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to collect Nigeria Police Trust Fund Levy; sanction non-compliant taxpayers refusing access to IT systems; sanction non-compliant banks that fail to deliver quarterly returns; investigate tax evasion and other crimes as well as streamline tax and levy collection from Nigerian companies in line with the present administration’s ease of doing business reforms.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, in her presentation before the committee, stressed the need for Nigeria to diversify its revenues from oil to fund critical expenditures, adding that Federal Government’s retained revenue was N4.56 trillion (75 percent of budget) as at September 2021; Federal share of oil revenues – N845 billion (56.3 percent pro-rated performance); N1.31 trillion (117.3 percent above budget) as the federal share of non-oil revenues; N616 billion and N274.4 billion (121 percent and 153 percent of pro-rata targets) of Companies Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) and N418 billion Customs collections for the period under review.
”Our aspiration is to do a midterm review with a possibility of another Finance Bill in mid-year 2022 to bring in more amendments,” she said’ adding that there were ongoing legal cases in court against the Federal Government on VAT and Stamp Duties, a reason why the ministry stayed off those areas at the moment.
In his comments earlier, Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. James Faleke explained that the proposed finance bill was geared towards supporting the economy and the implementation of the 2022 budget, adding that all stakeholders have the opportunity to speak and make their contributions to the bill before it is passed into law.
