Daily Watch – FG seeks GEMS extension, FIRS to audit taxpayers

7th September 2018

  • The chairman of the FIRS has said that the agency will soon commence the audit of taxpayers across the country. Fowler said that the nationwide audit would ensure increased tax revenue collection, improved service delivery to taxpayers and enhanced voluntary compliance. He called on stakeholders to support efforts at repositioning the nation’s tax administration system. The FIRS chief said that all tax laws that were not in the interest of the taxpayers were already undergoing a review process, and added that taxpayers and stakeholders should support tax authorities in the interest of national development. The tax expert explained that FIRS had put in place various strategies to curtail non-compliance to improve tax revenue collection on a sustainable basis.
  • MTN Group is under review by Moody’s for a possible credit rating downgrade after being hit by two payment demands totalling $10.1 billion by authorities in Nigeria. “MTN’s ratings have been placed on review for downgrade to reflect the uncertainty around the potential implications of the recent CBN and NAG announcements on MTN’s credit profile,” Moody’s said. Moody’s, which already has junk rating on MTN debt at Ba1, said without the demand for the refund and the potential tax shortfall MTN would be able to repay approaching debt maturities over the next 12 to 18 months.
  • Following its inability to disburse $160 million (₦57.3 billion) job creation funding provided by the World Bank, the FG has sought for a 12 month extension to enable it to fully implement the project known as Growth and Employment in States. The objective of the GEMS project is to accelerate growth and employment in participating states. Under the project being supervised by Ministry of Finance and implemented by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, grants are given to deserving Small and Medium-scale Enterprises to support growth and employment. Although the project is supposed to come to an end on Friday, only ₦3.7 billion has been disbursed within the period of five years since the implementation of the project began.
  • Nigeria has licensed 158 new seed companies to commence production of quality seeds. Philip Ojo, the DG of the National Agricultural Seed Council said that the new approvals were given in addition to the 156 already existing licences. The approval was given in order to address the problem of inaccessibility and lack of quality seedling. Ojo said that the approvals were made up of 16 new small-scale companies, 133 producer and seller entrepreneurs and nine seed dealers. He added that out of the 158 new seed entrepreneurs, 10 are foreign companies while the others are Nigerian outfits. Ojo admitted that though a deficit in seed availability still exists, this would be bridged to a large extent with the new approvals. Nigeria now has 314 seed entrepreneurs, 223 produce sellers and 20 seed dealers.