administration and address government concerns about the precarious
reliance on oil revenue receipts as the mainstay of the country’s
economy. Some of the concrete steps taken to reduce leakages and
increase the country’s revenue base are:
A New National Tax Policy; which is to serve as an all time guiding
principle for all taxes in the country.
A New Tax Administration Law (TAL). This serves to simplify tax
administration as well as amend all existing tax laws. Efforts are being
made to review and to update obsolete ones and abrogate those that
have become irrelevant.
The New Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2011. The bill aims at
introducing wholesale changes to personal income tax administration in
Nigeria, so as to bring various provisions of the law up to date.
A National Tax Payer Database is being developed to ensure that all
Corporate and individual entities have unique tax payer number across
State and Federal jurisdictions. In this regard, every entity is expected
to be uniquely identified using Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).
Companies Income Tax/Pioneer Status: The Companies Income Tax
has been amended in order to encourage potential and existing
investors and entrepreneurs while the grant of pioneer status to an
industry is aimed at enabling the industry to make reasonable level of
profit within its formative years. The profit so made is ploughed into
the business. It is a tax holiday granted to qualified or eligible industries
anywhere in the federation and seven years tax holiday for industries
located in economically disadvantaged local government areas of the
Federation. Currently, about sixty nine (69) industries are in the
approved list of declared pioneer industries that can benefit from the
tax holiday.
5.1.5 The reforms in the tax system earned the country an appointment into the
United Nations Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax
Matters in August 2009. This afforded the country, the opportunity to actively
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