The Federal Government on Tuesday moved to block all revenue leakages by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) following its discovery of N100 billion tax revenue shortfalls by contractors between 2012 and 2017.
Consequently, the FG has ordered vendors of MDAs to display their Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) on their invoices before payments are effected by the MDAs.
The Federal Government’s directive was handed down on Tuesday in Abuja by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun to the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
Analysts said last night that this move of government will help in enforcing compliance and ensuring appropriate tax is being paid by service providers.
Johnson Chukwu, managing director/CEO, Cowry Asset Management limited told BusinessDay by phone that it will help in improving tax revenue of the Federal Government as well as enhance government capability to engage in public works.
Adeosun, in a memo titled “Compliance with Tax Payments by Federal Government Vendors”, disclosed that persistent leakages in revenue remittances by vendors had been uncovered by the Government’s Project Lighthouse, a system wide revenue intelligence data-warehouse.
The leakages, according to her, were due to lack of TIN particularly on Value Added Tax (VAT), Withholding Tax (WHT) and other related inflows into the government coffers.
The Minister said, “In order to address these lapses in the implementation of the 2017 Budget as well as boost the revenue accruable to the Government, all MDAs should be directed to insist that invoices submitted by vendors for payments must clearly state the TIN.
“This is to confirm tax compliance by relevant governme
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