FIRS boss, Babatunde Fowler

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says the country’s taxpayers will soon increase to 45 million.

Mr Wahab Gbadamosi, the Head, Communications and SERVICOM Department, in a statement in Abuja on Monday said the Executive Secretary, Joint Tax Board (JTB), Mr Oseni Elamah, disclosed this at the presentation of the new Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Registration System report.

The report was presented to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Babatunde Fowler, who is also the Chairman of the JTB.

Elama said that as at December, 2018, Nigeria’s tax payers database expanded from 20 million to 35 million.

He said the ongoing integration of database would give the nation a total of 45 million individual and corporate taxpayers.

“JTB has completed the building of a new TIN Registration System which is an integration of TIN numbers of various organisations in Nigeria”.

“The growth of the taxpayers’ database is a major flank of the goals of the JTB in collaboration with the apex tax authority, the FIRS”.

“State Revenue Authorities are expected to enjoy immense benefits from the new TIN System,” he said.

While receiving the report, Fowler said the system would encourage transparency, efficiency and convenience in tax administration in the country.

“I congratulate the JTB for finalising the new TIN Registration System in record time. We now have a consolidated database for all taxpayers in Nigeria”.

“If you are a taxpayer and go to any other country or visit another state in Nigeria and they want to check your tax status, what this means is that they can check your tax status by a touch of a button”.

“We want to assure all taxpayers that we are ready to serve them more with technology, convenience and accountability,” Fowler said. (NAN)