By; USMAN NASIDI, Kaduna
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in conjunction with the Afropolitan Media Limited, commenced the training of journalists in Kaduna on the role of the FIRS in driving the nation’s tax administration for nation building.
The Managing Director and the Chief Executive Officer Afropolitan Media Limited, Aisha Umar Haliru said in her welcome address at the one-day sensitisation workshop held yesterday in Kaduna in collaboration with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), that it is targeted at broadening the knowledge of journalists on tax matters.
“The workshop also aimed at bringing participants up to date on current challenges faced by tax authorities like the FIRS and the importance of the media reporting these challenges ethically and responsibly in close collaboration with the FIRS and other tax bodies at the sub-national levels and for the education of the taxpaying public.
“The title of the workshop which reads ” The Role of the FIRS in Driving National Tax Administration for Nation Building” was divided into two sessions of 30 minutes of lecture each and a 10-minute question and answer time.”
Speaking with newsmen in an interview, the resource person, Ma’aruf Ajibola Ibrahim who is a Tax consultant and Auditor, said the aim of the workshop is to acquaint the media on how to charge individuals or enterprises to pay tax the right way and to the accurate organisations.
He said, more than before, Nigerians are now tax compliant because there are more friendly approaches from the tax company.
“Part of the challenges include identification of some income earners who are not registered under tax, we also have supposed taxpayers who are not on the tax net because they are not registered with Corporate Affairs Commission CAC,” he explained.
On the issue of bank deductions once individuals make transactions, Ma’aruf explained that banks are under regulation of many institutions and the apex among them is Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), hence if anyone encounters challenges in respect of any transaction carried out with any bank, he said the best thing is to write the bank and copy CBN to get the issue addressed.
He called on media practitioners to give accurate information to tax paying populace, because they believe that whatever the media passes to them is actually true.
