The Federal government has clarified that it has no plans to merge revenue-generating agencies contrary to speculations in some sections of the media.
President Bola Tinubu’s special adviser on revenue, Zacchaeus Adedeji, made the clarification during an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday.
Adedeji, however, said that the harmonisation or integration does not mean the current administration would merge the various revenue collection agencies.
“We are not collapsing. The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited will be NNPC because it is limited. FIRS will be (on its own) but the collection of all revenues will be technologically driven by data,” he said.
According to the presidential aide, through the integration of revenue collection agencies, the country’s total annual revenue, which is below N15 trillion, will be increased without imposing extra taxes.
“The current administration needs to increase the nation’s revenue not through taxation but by addressing indiscipline in national spending and technologically monitoring revenue collection when agencies like Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), and Nigerian Customs are harmonised.
“The law is very clear as to how to collect revenue. In Section 162 of the Nigerian Constitution, it is clearly stated that there shall be an account called the Federation Account and all government revenues must be put into that account.
“When we talk about harmonisation, we are just saying the integration of all collecting agencies, that on one platform, we can know what is happening in Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Customs, and the FIRS,” he said.