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THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have set up a Joint Committee to enhance national revenue in the telecom sector.
The 17-member committee was inaugurated by the NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu, for the Commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Muhammad Nami.
The committee, comprised six officials of NCC and 11 officials of FIRS, a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde announced yesterday.
The Coordinating Director for Compliance Support Group, Dr. Dick Irri, who Nami, led the FIRS officials to the event.
Adewolu said the terms of reference (ToR) of the Committee include “review the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the NCC and the FIRS on June 9, 2020; and carry out inter-agency interaction on the implementation of the NCC’s Revenue Assurance System (RAS) to ensure that it incorporates the needs of FIRS to the extent that RAS can remain the sole interface with telecom service providers’ networks vis-à-vis the Tax Authority’s information needs from the telecoms sector”.
Given the Committee’s composition and with the extensive experience and commitment of its members, which had informed their selection by the agencies, Adewolu stated that the management of NCC and the FIRS expected no less than an excellent output from the Committee, tasking them to work together harmoniously and in the overall national interest.
Irri advised the Committee to take the assignments very seriously.
“I would like to task you to take this assignment as a national matter as we expect the two agencies to work in harmony, collaborate effectively and have a warm handshake that will make this synergy between the two agencies a great example of collaboration between Federal Government agencies towards enhancing fiscal governance in Nigeria,” he said.
It was learnt that the decision to set up the Committee was one of the major outcomes of the meeting between the FIRS and the NCC on March 8, this year organised at the instance of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, to discuss the request by the FIRS for data and documents from the telecoms industry for enhancing national revenues from the sector.
Adinde said the collaboration of the NCC and the FIRS are acknowledged as pivotal to the achievement of sustainable revenue and growth projections of the Federal Government.
He noted that the telecoms sector has sustained a relatively high contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the years – ending fourth quarter of 2021 at 12.6 per cent.
Besides, the FIRS recently acknowledged that some telecom licensees contribute significantly high percentage of total national tax revenue, he said.
It is expected that the Joint Committee will enable the organisations to further optimise revenue for the Federal Government from the telecoms, digital economy and adjacent sectors, Adinde stated.
