FIRS Seeks OEDC's Support to Check Transfer Pricing by IOCs *Targets N4tn revenue from oil and gas

 

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has solicited the support of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to stem tax evasion by international oil companies (IOCs) and multinationals operating in Nigeria through transfer pricing under which they allegedly dodge tax in Nigeria and transfer their profits offshore.

The Executive Chairman of FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami, made the call in Abuja on Tuesday when a team of the Nigerian office of the OECD paid him a courtesy visit at the FIRS headquarters.

A statement released by FIRS Director of Communications and Liaison Department,  Abdullahi Ismaila Ahmad, said Nami noted that FIRS needs capacity-building support, information sharing, data interpretation, usage and related technical synergy with the OECD in order for the Service to meet tax revenue targets in the extractive industry and the newly emerging digital economy.

The FIRS chairman observed that revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) had made physical filing of tax returns obsolete.

However, Nami stated: “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has also made tax collection more complex, especially in trans-border trade and trans-continental commerce in which big players like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba and other e-commerce corporations do big business and drive the digital economy, yet countries find it difficult to take due tax from the huge economic activities these online giants engage in.

"This is more so for developing countries like Nigeria where our people buy luxury goods more online while these big online stores don’t pay any tax to us here in Nigeria.

  “The complexity of the digital economy to the tax authorities also extents to the telecommunication and financial sectors, including the emerging trades and the exchange carried out using digital currency.”  

Nami also disclosed that the Service also expects to rake in N4 trillion as tax revenue from the extractive sector of the Nigerian economy in the 2020 fiscal year.

In another development, FIRS and the Federal Fire Service  resolved also to work closer in order to protect public property and records from possible fire outbreak.

Both organisations made this commitment in Abuja when the Controller-General (CG) of Federal Fire Service, Dr. Liman Alhaji Ibrahim, also paid a courtesy visit to the FIRS headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

He commended the Fire Service for the prompt response to rescue the FIRS last year during a fire incident which occurred in its building.

Nami canvassed closer collaboration between the FIRS and the Fire Service in areas such as routine visits of firemen and women to FIRS offices for drills and related safety education as well as regular inspection, servicing and replacement of anti-fire equipment like fire extinguishers currently installed in FIRS offices nationwide to ensure their good working condition.

In his remarks, the CG pledged to work with the FIRS to protect the Service’s offices and valuable documents against fire outbreak, saying: “We are ready to work with your organisation to give the best fire service support needed.”