The Nigeria Customs Service has raised concerns that it may no longer be able to fulfil some of its constitutional duties if the Tax Reform Bills currently before the National Assembly are passed.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
The Customs Service observed that a new agency may take over its functions based on some provisions in the bills proposed by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The Comptroller General of the NCS, Adewale Adeniyi, raised the observations and points of concern during the public hearing on the tax reform bills at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Naija News understands that if the bills are passed as they are currently, the NCS will lose its revenue collection power to the yet-to-be-created Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS).
The Customs boss said the potential threatens the very existence of the NCS.
Speaking during the hearing, Adeniyi said they are worried that the new law is seeking to override all previous laws that were done to address issues regarding the economy.
He said, “Sections 23 and 29 of the bill, and section 41A of the Joint Revenue Bill have jurisdictional conflict issues.
“In the Nigerian Revenue Service Establishment Bill, Section 16 will completely legislate Nigeria Custom Service out of existence, if you pardon my words.
“In section 4S, there is also another omnibus provision. This particular provision gives the proposed NRS oversight functions over all taxes and levies.
“We are worried that this new law is seeking to override all previous laws that were done to address issues regarding the economy.”
He further expressed worry about the interchangeability of the words “tax” and “duties” in the proposed laws and called for the ambiguity to be addressed as both words serve different functions in practical terms.
“The substitution of the word ‘tax’, the substitution of the word ‘duty’ by ‘tax’ in very many areas of the bill seems to overlook the difference and the objective which these two tools can do in an economy.
“Our understanding is that tax is used to generate revenue for governments, and it’s also used to distribute wealth. However, duty goes beyond that.
“Duty is more of a fiscal policy tool, an instrument by governments to encourage industrialisation, to discourage environmental pollution, and to put in some kind of public health order,” he said.
In conclusion, Adeniyi submitted that the bills be re-evaluated so the Customs Service won’t be put into extinction and several existing laws won’t be repealed in the aim to create another law.
“We, therefore, made some recommendations and the principal recommendation we made was that we should encourage collaboration and integration of operations between customs and the tax authority, not to abolish customs or not to repeal a law because we want to do another law,” he submitted.