The Federal Government has set up an Inter-Ministeral committee to recover outstanding tax liabilities collected between January 2016 and May this year.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha inaugurated the committee in Abuja.
Mustapha, while inaugurating the committee, charged them to ensure that they recover all Stamp Duties collected on behalf of the Federal Government but yet to be remitted by governnment agencies, banks and other companies.
He said the need to recover the Stamp Duty became imperative, owing to the dwindling revenue of government, which was caused by the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
He said the impact of the pandemic had led to a budget deficit of over N5trn.
Mustapha said, “The government has recognised the fact that for any meaningful development to be achieved, it has to look inward to use every available means to shore up its revenue generating capacity.
“For too long, the country has depended on oil as the main cash cow of the economy even though it is richly endowed with other viable revenue yielding sources.
“In the face of dwindling oil revenue, it is even more compelling now to begin to think out of the box in order to safeguard the future of our country.”
He said the administration had resolved to widen the revenue base by activating the Stamp Duty revenue collection, which had been neglected for more than 20 years.
The SGF said the revenue from Stamp Duty would be focused on by the government as it had the potential to yield up to N1trn annually if properly harnessed.
He said the committee was being inaugurated to serve as a timely intervention to augment the Federal Government’s revenue generation capacity while avoiding a situation where the economy would slide back into recession.
