FIRS receives support from NASS to reenact new tax legislation and regulate cryptocurrency

The National Assembly has declared that it will promote the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) by doing away with obsolete tax laws and enacting new ones that correspond to contemporary and international designs. The Senate Committee on Finance Chairman, Senator Muhammed Musa, made this statement on Saturday in Lagos during the FIRS 2024 Stakeholders Engagement with the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Finance. To provide the nation with the appropriate laws for tax collection and revenue production, Musa stated that the action was crucial. As per his statement, the procedure will facilitate the alteration of tax regulations that before the nation's independence.

The lawmaker said: “I am sure the Executive will submit the bill when we resume from our recess to enable us to amend the Acts, repeal them and re-enact the ones that will suit current trends.

“Considering innovation, cryptocurrencies, for example, have been one of the largest ways of making money, but in Nigeria, we do not have any law to guide that.

“With what FIRS and the legislatures are doing, we are synergising to come out with a legislation that will give Nigeria the best in getting more revenue to take care of its challenges, in terms of human development, and infrastructure, among others.

“We are working together to ensure that the FIRS is fully equipped to maximise revenue collection, thereby providing the necessary resources for National development and public welfare in the country.”

As the cornerstone of revenue production, he claims, the FIRS has a mandate that is essential to the country's financial stability and sustainability. According to him, the agency needed to respond to the changing needs of the country's economy through a shared sense of communal responsibility. The congressman remembered that the revenue service had improved tax administration and compliances and repositioned the agency in recent years, particularly under the direction of Dr. Zacch Adedeji, the Executive Chairman of the FIRS.

Adedeji clarified that the new law would, among other things, harmonize and streamline the nation's tax code and offer improved services that would support President Bola Tinubu's economic agenda. "Take the 1939 Stamp Duty Tax Law, for instance. At the time, there was no local government, no internet, and no communication. "To check these lapses and address the concerns by September, President Bola Tinubu established the Tax and Fiscal Reform Committee in part." The head of FIRS also emphasized the necessity for cryptocurrency regulation in Nigeria because there is now no legislation in place to do so.

"There needs to be a law that regulates this line of transaction, even though we cannot avoid cryptocurrencies because there is currently no law regulating them in Nigeria."

Adedeji said that the Federal Government had benefited from the advances made by both chambers and praised the National Assembly for the support it has given the revenue service over the years to help it reach its goal and distribute wealth. He claims that the FIRS is working to achieve the N19.4 trillion goal that the National Assembly set for it at the start of the year. According to him, the main goals of the involvement were to improve ties with the legislature and educate them on the significance and efficacy of the numerous laws that have been approved.