In an effort to meet up with the target of N200 Billion Naira, Federal Capital Territory Internally Revenue Services (FCT-IRS) on Tuesday launched aggressive campaign to instill a tax paying culture among both individuals and businesses.Â
The Acting Chairman of the FCT-IRS, Haruna Abdullahi who led the road show, said raising awareness was one of the tactics the agency had used to meet its target.Â
Abdullahi, the Service has taken a number of steps to improve people’s negative attitudes toward paying taxes.
While he stated that the tax awareness campaign will be stepped up, he also stated that the agency may use existing laws to punish defaulters.
It is an infraction, he said, for organizations and businesses to neglect to file their tax returns.
He went further to explain that the campaign will not be limited to the city center, put taking to all Area Councils, to ensure that all residents were properly carried along.
His words, ” The road show was to create an impression that FCT-IRS exists and also tell the public our roles and services we provide, and to also enlighten the public on their responsibilities to the country and FCT in particular.
” We have realised that in the past years a lot of people have asked is there FCT-IRS. So it is our intention to now every January will be our tax enlightenment drive.
” We want to let residents in Abuja to know that they have the responsibilities to pay their taxes and also file their tax returns. They should know that March 31st is deadline for filing tax returns, and there is penalty for defaulting.
” One way of achieving our tax target of over N200 billion is by the awareness we are creating today, so that more people will file their taxes and that will affect our bottom line.
” We are also taking our campaign to all the Area Councils and not just the city center. The FCT-IRS is guided by personal income tax and the FCT tax Act”, he added.
Meanwhile, the Director Human Resource, FCT IRS, Mr Mohammed Jada, who spoke on the efficiency drive of the Agency, stated that programmes have been designed for training and retraining of staff towards building their capacity for maximum service delivery.
