The Association of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria on Revenue and Economy (ACCNRE) has advocated the establishment of an Independent Revenue Inspectorate Agency of Nigeria (I-RIAN) to regulate and monitor tax collection.
A yax Analyst and founder of the association, Orji-Philip Orji made the demand at a news conference in Abuja on Friday.
He said that a bill had been submitted to the 9th and 10th National Assembly to support the demand, and had pass second reading in the House of Representatives and Senate.
He said that the bill titled, “National Inspector General for Tax Crime Commission (NIGTCC) would ease the burden of tax payment by Nigerians and also help the country in tax regulation.
Orji said that the bill, if passed, would help to promote economic efficiency and effectiveness in administering the National Tax System.
He said that the bill would also help to detect, deter fraud, waste and abuse in the taxation programmes and operations, as well as help to protect taxpayers rights.
Orji said his association had developed a framework that would help in easy takeoff of the agency, where its members of staff would pass through six months rigorous training for effective service delivery.
He stated: “In the I-RIAN strategic framework, tax education and sensitisation in our three major languages and pigin English, engagement of host stakeholders, including tax studies in our primary and secondary school’s curriculum will be carried out.
“The agency shall be reporting to the National Assembly Congressional Committee on Finance and copy the reports to the Auditor General of the Federation on the deficiencies identified and of the progress made in resolving them.
“The establishment of I-RIAN will enable Nigeria to get integrated into Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tax Inspectors Without Boarders (TIWB).
“It will help in checkmating Automatic Information sharing against, illicit financial flow, transfer pricing, base erosion and all manners of international tax fraud.”
Orji noted that Nigeria has lost over 40 billion dollars on tax revenue, adding that OECD and UNDP TIWB help countries to guarantee the accuracy of their domestic revenue administration compliance to best global practice of taxation.
He stressed that the system, by extension, would help to protect the integrity of revenue collection institutions such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and win the taxpayers trust.
Orji said that it would also eliminate multiple taxation and encourage voluntary compliance amongst the taxpayers, as well as stop monies wastefully spent on the tax consultants.
According to him, Nigeria lacks the requisite Information Technology (IT) to tax the multinational corporations and the International citizens , projecting that international taxes alone will give Nigeria over 40 billion dollars if the right things were done.