From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has commended the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the significant progress it has made in tax administration under its current leadership.
A Senior Economist at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, Paulo Paz, gave the commendation on Wednesday, July 9, during the opening session of an IMF-supported Headquarters Mission at the Revenue House in Abuja.
According to him, the new tax laws recently signed by President Bola Tinubu will pose new challenges for the Service. He assured that the IMF stands ready to continue its support to ensure the FIRS can navigate these changes effectively.
“Our take on the four tax laws is first a recognition of the very good work that FIRS has been providing to the citizens.
“You have, at the same time, the recognition and new responsibilities with these very powerful laws, which will increase the relevance of the tax administration in Nigeria.
“I want to express our honour of being here and being a partner of FIRS. Thank you for your trust in our advice. We congratulate you for the good results so far. There is more to come, and we are here to help,” he said.
According to a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media to the FIRS Chairman, Dare Adekanmbi, on Wednesday, July 9, the visit by the IMF team was part of efforts to explore how the Fund can further assist the agency, especially in the implementation of the recently enacted tax reform laws.
In his remarks, FIRS Chairman, Zacch Adedeji, represented by his Chief of Staff, Tayo Koleosho, expressed appreciation for the IMF’s consistent partnership with the agency. He noted that the collaboration, particularly in areas such as portfolio management and compliance programmes, has been invaluable.
“IMF has gone on this journey with us, and I think we are in a good place to continue the journey together. We are working together either in digital transformation, VAT automation, looking at even the compliance programme, and ability to automate some of those things,” he said.
“I am interested in corporate plan and the nexus of data portfolio management so that we have our strategy being dissolved into those manageable tasks. It’s very important that those things are well,” he added.
Also speaking, Mrs Bolaji Akintola, Coordinating Director, Corporate Services Group, described the IMF as a critical stakeholder in FIRS’ ongoing tax reform efforts aimed at improving domestic revenue mobilisation.
She recalled that the IMF supported the Service in conducting two systemic evaluations using the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT) between 2018 and 2023.
“Each of these exercises was followed by a post-TADAT mission where a reform roadmap was developed to address the systemic weaknesses that were uncovered by the assessment.
“The fact that the results of the 2023 TADAT showed significant improvement on those of 2018 is indicative of the commitment of the Service towards institutional excellence.
“Let me assure you that if another TADAT is conducted today, the result will be better than that of 2023 because a good number of the weak indicators from the 2023 Performance Assessment Report have been addressed, and some have been codified in the four tax reform laws recently signed by President Bola Tinubu,” she said.
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