The Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Hafsat Bakari, has disclosed that the era of tax evasion in Nigeria is gone.
Bakari spoke on Tuesday during the first National Revenue Assurance Summit between the NFIU and states Internal Revenue Service in Abuja.
Speaking at the event organised by the NFIU, Bakari said it is imperative to block revenue leakages and enable the government to utilise the resources to meet the yearnings of the citizens.
She also spoke on the efforts of the NFIU to address tax crimes through the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), saying that a lot of loopholes have been identified at the subnational levels.
She said, “All participants at this meeting are aware of the fact that our nation has moved into a new fiscal era, where the imperative of governance and the need to deliver. infrastructure and vital services to our citizens require innovation and out of the box thinking.
“At the national and sub-national level, our collective ambition to grow the economy requires us to diversify the source of revenue available to government. We cannot afford to rely just on proceeds from the oil and gas industry.
Bakari also noted that the agency’s focus had shifted towards increasing internally generated revenue, saying that development would enable the government to secure and provide essential amenities for citizens.
She explained that although their mandate is to focus on money laundering and terrorist financing, the unit has identified tax crimes and revenue assurance as a critical strategic priority for the unit.
She said, “Historically, FIUs have focused on money laundering and terrorist financing. However, at the NFIU, we have identified tax crimes and revenue assurance as a critical strategic priority for the Unit.
This led us to establish a dedicated Tax Crimes and Revenue Assurance Department, one of the first within any Financial Intelligence Unit globally.
“While our work on tax crimes initially focused on supporting the Federal Inland Revenue Service, we took a further step to explore partnerships with sub-national counterparts. This expansion was predicated on the recognition that the vast majority of tax evasion happens at the State level. Our analysis led us to the conclusion that the data on financial transactions held within the Unit would be of tremendous benefit to State Internal Revenue Services as well.
“However, at this point, I must sound a note of caution. While FIUs were created by international conventions to address criminal activity, the same international conventions and standards require that we put in place measures to protect the integrity of the information that would be provided to them.
“To build the schools we need to educate our children, to provide effective healthcare, to build roads and bridges, to secure our communities, we recognise that our focus should shift towards internally generated revenue.
“Therefore, we need to have efficient and effective systems in place to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of the tax burden. There can be no room for tax avoidance and tax evasion.”
The NFIU boss further disclosed that the agency has established a dedicated tax crimes and revenue assurance department, to deal with errant individuals and sanction defaulters.
Bakari said, “While our work on tax crimes initially focused on supporting the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), we took a further step to explore partnerships with sub-national counterparts.
“This expansion was predicated on the recognition that the vast majority of tax evasion happens at the state level.
,”Our analysis led us to the conclusion that the data on financial transactions held within the unit would be of tremendous benefit to State Internal Revenue Services as well.
She said, “To this end, our approach to working with states is built on the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which sets out the principles, objectives and limitations of the intelligence provided.
“We have also developed, using our in-house technical resources, a secure platform for requesting and receiving intelligence from the NFIU, the Crime Records Information Management System (CRIMS).
“Through CRIMS, we have entirely eliminated paper records, which are prone to compromise, and we have robust audit mechanisms to ensure we are aware of who is asking for and who is receiving our intelligence.
“We conduct robust training for the authorised users of the CRIMS platform, which includes understanding the role of the NFIU, the type of information we hold, and the overall intelligence cycle. Bakari added.
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