The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it would partner with the police to stop illegal taxation in markets across the country.

Executive Chairman, FIRS, Muhammad Nami, made this known when he met with the association of market traders, saying the Service would collaborate with security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police, to deal with illegal tax collection by touts in markets.

Nami said: “One important area of our collaboration is the issue of providing adequate security in the markets. We are aware of the challenges that you have faced in the past with miscreants, self-imposed tax collection agents and touts.

“I want to assure you that as part of this initiative, we will be collaborating with the relevant security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Police Force to tackle all forms of touting and illegal tax collection by miscreants and keep them away from your markets.”

The FIRS will also be partnering with the Market Traders Association of Nigeria (MATAN) to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) from the markets and remit to the FIRS.

A statement from the FIRS signed by Johannes Oluwatobi Wojuola, Special Assistant to the Executive Chairman, on Media and Communication, said “the partnership will see the FIRS collaborating with the association to deploy technology to enumerate traders for collecting and remitting VAT to the Service, consequently leading to an expansion of the tax net and increased revenue for the Federation”.

The Association, Wojuola said has a membership of well over 40 million traders across the country’s 774 local governments, and 36 States plus the Federal Capital Territory and is considered to be the biggest player in Nigeria’s market space.

Details of the FIRS’ partnership with MATAN was disclosed at a Stakeholders Engagement Programme on the VAT DIRECT Initiative (VDI) held in Lagos.

Wojuola said the VAT DIRECT Initiative (VDI) is a programme designed to foster collaboration between the FIRS and the market place, especially the informal sector, in the collection and remittance of the Value Added Tax (VAT) using technology.

Speaking during the Stakeholder Engagement, Mr. Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman FIRS said the initiative was crucial to revenue generation and also to eliminating multiple taxation, especially from the informal sector.

Nami who also serves as the Chairman of the Joint Tax Board (JTB) further stated that “the government is worried about the multiplicity of taxes, as a result, both the Service and JTB were working on various modalities of addressing this challenge”.

The FIRS/MATAN partnership Nami said “has laid a very good foundation for the government to address the issue of multiple taxation and extortion by tax officials, tax agents and touts in the market place”.

Mr. Nami further noted that the success of this collaboration would lead to increased revenue for the country, and in turn provide government the needed resources to fund infrastructure and other social amenities.

The administration of VAT in the informal sector Nami lamented “is characterized mainly by a low level of compliance and a lack of awareness in terms of obligation and liability. It, therefore, becomes necessary to leverage the MATAN platform to positively change the status quo”.