CITN tasks new fellows on skill updates to develop tax profession

The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has urged new fellows to update their knowledge on trending taxation issues due to the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the profession.

President and Chairman of Council, CITN, Adesina Adedayo, gave the charge during the institute’s fellowship conferment ceremony, which was held recently.

While urging the fellows to project the institute positively through ethical conduct even as they strive for excellence at all times, he said the council would rely on their wealth of knowledge in developing the tax profession, while advising government to raise critical fiscal policies as they affect taxation and economy.

With the recent 2023 budget Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly, Adedayo said the country’s current debt burden would require the fellows’ inputs during engagements and analysis sections to help government with actionable policies backed by their implementation strategies.

In his keynote address, Special Adviser to Kano State Governor on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Habibu Mohammed, urged the CITN to champion development of processes and mechanisms for proper collection of taxes from informal businesses.

He said this could be achieved by organising critical workshops solely on informal sector taxation.

He revealed that research recently conducted on informal sector taxation in Kano State indicated that less than 10 per cent of informal businesses in Kano State were in the tax net.

He said out of the 10 per cent, half did not pay what they were supposed to pay the government.

With all the challenges, he said the present administration in Kano State had made a lot of investments to tap more revenues from the informal sector taxation.

This, according to him, included judicial utilisation of funds generated from the sector, to improve people’s willingness to pay taxes.