The Joint Tax Board (JTB) says it is committed to strengthening the board through the adoption of technology and digital transformation for effective service delivery.
The Chairman of the Board, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, said this at the 154th Meeting of the JTB on Wednesday in Abuja.
Adedeji said that the board, while focusing on structural and institutional aspects of the evolution, would enable the full optimisation of the potential in tax revenue that is yet untapped in the country.
He encouraged the board to re-dedicate its effort to improve on past achievements to enable it to break new ground.
According to him, as the dynamics of the global economy continue to be laced with unpredictability, our processes must continue to be strengthened.
“This will be through the adoption of technology, digital transformation, and the positive disruptions it has wrought.
“Also, as the first quarter of 2024 gradually winds down, let us re-dedicate ourselves to improving on past achievements, as we must always strive to break new ground.
“We are glad that tax revenues for 2023 saw a few records being set, both at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and at the sub-national level.
“The unprecedented collection of N12.3 trillion posted by the FIRS in 2023 gives us more conviction that with the right things being done and the right people in the right places, we can achieve the seemingly impossible.
“I am confident that the role of the JTB in the nation’s tax landscape will be further strengthened under our watch.
“We are also encouraged by the performance at the sub-national level, where numbers are looking at crossing the N2 trillion thresholds for the first time.
“However, we are not just interested in nominal growth rates; we are interested in holistic, sustainable, and inclusive growth that encompasses institutions, people, technology, and a variety of factors that define the overarching health and wellbeing of our national economy.
“For it is only when we have achieved these that we can truly beat our chests and say we have done our bit,’’ he said.
Adedeji said the board would ensure it provides the necessary revenue for the state to function effectively, adding that a well-designed and properly managed tax system has the propensity to encourage investment.
He added that the system would also promote social equity and contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development.
He said that the nation is currently challenged on many fronts, adding that the challenges should reinforce the desire to evolve the required solution.
He said that the solution would be through individual and collective actions as the drivers of tax administration in the country.
The chairman said that the JTB could become the medium that would adequately and appropriately address these issues that we have been grappling with for decades.
He said that it was in the light of comprehensively addressing the challenges in the armour of tax administration that President Bola Tinubu constituted the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee.
He said that the committee’s objective was to address the critical challenges around fiscal governance, revenue transformation, and economic growth in the nation.
The chairman, however, called on all relevant stakeholders to re-dedicate to the national cause, leveraging the strategic role that revenue agencies play in forging national development.
“I give the assurance that when the tale is told, our little efforts here at the JTB will be written in gold,’’ he said.
Mr. Olusegun Adesokan, Secretary of the Board, said that a presidential committee was working to reform the tax land scale and analyze taxes through technology.
“By so doing, data will be available for both the federal practitioners and the sub-nationalists to administer taxes accurately and effectively.
“The committee has been meeting for the past six to seven months, and we hope to submit a workshop report that will contain a lot of devotions on the tax land scale.
“One of them is to reduce the tax scale to stimulate; secondly, there is a data compact initiative, which hopefully should come in one or a few months.
“That initiative will give every tax lawyer the ability to identify a single identity in a file, and that identifier will be your National Identification Number (NIN).
“It means that you will not be able to do anything without your NIN.
“In that way, tax lawyers can accurately access the tax file. By so doing, the tax system will improve,” he said. (NAN)
