Worried by the incessant multiple taxation against its citizens, the federal government of Nigeria has instituted a new tax regime, known as Tax Payer Identification Number (TIN) to tackle the menace.
Speaking to journalists shortly after a stakerholders’ sensitization workshop in Port Harcourt, the Secretary Joint Tax Board, Mr. Lawal Abubakar said the workshop was meant to sensitize the public on the tax payers identification number. According to him, it will be odd to automate the taxation system without enlightening the people on the issue. He was emphatic that the new number will check multiple taxation in the country.
Abubakar dismissed insinuations that the new tax system could be manipulated, noting that the individual bio-metric capture of tax payers will stamp out that fears.
The Joint Tax Board Secretary opined that by 2013 it will be difficult to carry out any financial transactions in the banks without TIN.
Adding his voice to the issue, Mr. Ukem Ake one of the participants at the workshop said the unemployed will be excluded from the tax net.
He posited that no government wants to suffer its citizens by imposing irrelevant taxes, expressing confidence that the TIN will correct the multiple tax anormaly.
Throwing more light on the issue, Ake said because the system will be fully automated, any tax paid in anywhere in the country will cover the payer across the nation.
On how the states and the Federal government will differentiate the taxes paid by individuals, he said tax payers are expected to pay in the state of their residence for proper accountability.
The workshop is expected to go round all the 6 geo-political zones in the country. ####
Barth Ndu
