AGF Tasks Tax Administrators on Nigeria’s Fiscal Challenges

James Emejo in Abuja

The Accountant General of the Federation (AuGF), Mr. Ahmed Idris, has called for the active involvement of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) in addressing the revenue challenges the country.

Idris, while interacting with the president and members of the institute who visited him in Abuja, tasked tax administrators to deploy their expertise to assist the government at all levels uncover new frontiers that could be explored to shore up the dwindling finances.

He said, “The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria has a very important role to play in salvaging the revenue challenges at all levels. It is important to make your presence and expertise available to all levels of governments to address the challenging revenue situation.”

He said professional tax practitioners and administrators should also deploy their expertise in capacity building for government revenue personnel to improve their efficiency and bring up new ideas that will help the government exploit revenue sources that have remained untapped.

He however, restated the readiness of the federal treasury to continue to collaborate with the institute and expressed optimism that the partnership will make a lot of difference in achieving the dream of increased revenue generation.

He said the federal treasury will sign a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the CITN on the areas of collaboration and promised that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure that the collaboration is successful and yields the desired results.

While noting that the office of the AFG has had a longstanding, mutually beneficial and profit-oriented relationship with the institute, Idris sought their participation in a special research that has been commissioned by his office to explore key sources of revenue and make them available for the government.

On the need to improve the capacity of revenue directors deployed to revenue agencies, the AGF assured that henceforth the CITN would be engaged to train prospective revenue directors before deployment to improve their capacity to deliver on their mandate.

Speaking, CITN President, Mr. Adesina Adedayo, commended the AGF for the successes recorded by the federal treasury in implementation of the financial management reforms initiatives of the federal government.

He added that the institute presently has 42 district societies spread across 32 states and the FCT and restated the commitment of the CITN to entrench professionalism in the Nigerian tax system.