The federal government will any moment from now announce the upward review of value-added tax to 10 per cent.
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) explained that the development became necessary to increase government revenue affected by the declining price of oil.
“The plan is to increase to 10 percent this year, but we have to consult first with relevant stakeholders,” Sunday Ogungbesan, Acting Executive Chairman of the FIRS, told reporters.
The price of Brent crude has dropped by more than half since June last year.
Ogungbesan added that “FIRS will put more effort in meeting targets after its collection of 1.97 trillion naira ($9.9 billion) in revenue in the first half fell short of a goal of 2.29 trillion naira.
“If we achieve our revenue targets, to a great extent government deficits will be reduced,” he said.
“Our plan is to bring every business into the tax net, this economy can survive outside oil”.
Comments