The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has discontinued the road infrastructure tax credit scheme, citing lack of legal backing and the agency’s inability to independently verify construction projects executed under the programme.
Chairman of the service, Zacch Adedeji, announced the decision at a media roundtable with THISDAY and ARISE News, stressing that while the initiative appeared attractive, it fell outside the statutory mandate of the revenue authority.
“No matter how good a programme is, it must have roots in law. The remit of the Nigeria Revenue Service is to assess, collect and account for revenue. Appropriation is not part of our job,” Adedeji said.
He explained that granting tax credits to firms for road construction effectively amounted to an appropriation function, which constitutionally belongs to government agencies empowered to spend and allocate public funds.
Adedeji disclosed that shortly after assuming office, one of the first files brought to him concerned road tax credits. While he approved an initial request, he declined subsequent ones after recognising the verification challenges.
“I was pressured to do the first one and I did it. The second one, I said no. This one is like tarring your road to prison,” he said.
“How do I confirm that a 10-kilometre road has been constructed? I don’t have engineers; I have tax controllers. So this has to go back to the Ministry of Works.”
He added that simply describing infrastructure projects as “tax credits” did not make them the responsibility of a revenue authority.
“The fact that they call it tax does not make it a tax job. I cannot be signing what I do not have the capacity to verify,” Adedeji said.
The N2.59 trillion tax credit scheme, introduced in 2017 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, was designed to attract private sector funding for the rehabilitation and construction of federal roads, with participating firms receiving income tax credits in return.
However, Adedeji had earlier faulted the programme, questioning its legality and insisting that it was not the duty of the NRS or the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to pay contractors or validate infrastructure projects.
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