The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed has tasked the newly constituted Commissioners of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) to avoid unnecessary delays and adjournments so as not to frustrate litigants.
“As you resume in your respective zones to commence sittings, I implore you to be diligent and avoid unnecessary delays and adjournment of cases. Your decisions and judgments should be in line with the provisions of the tax laws and facts brought before you” she said while inaugurating the TAT in Abuja.
She also promised the government would also continue to provide necessary support towards smooth operations of the Tribunals.
As Commissioners of the Tax Appeal Tribunal, she said “the expectations from all stakeholders are quite high. You are expected to discharge your duties with high level of professionalism, integrity, diligence and fairness to all parties in order to engender public trust and confidence in our tax system.”
According to her, “the government’s desire to achieve a sustainable growth and development of our economy has informed the concerted efforts by successive governments over the time to reform the Nigerian tax system, among others. One of the outcomes of the series of reforms is the strengthening of the appeal process and creation of the Tax Appeal Tribunal by the Federal Government in 2010.”
“Undoubtedly, the establishment of the Tribunal marked a very significant milestone in the annals of our nation’s tax dispute resolution mechanism” she noted.
“One of the key objectives of the government in setting up the Tribunal is to reduce the incidence of tax evasion and improve the tax payers’ confidence. Others include the need to ensure fairness and transparency of the tax administration and to minimize delays and bottlenecks in adjudication of tax disputes” she said.
The minister noted that “as an essential component of the ‘change’ agenda of the present administration, Nigeria launched a Revised National Tax Policy in January 2017 and a provided tax amnesty platform through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme.”
“Very fundamentally, the current tax policy of the government places emphasis on areas of harnessing all necessary inputs towards achieving voluntary tax compliance” she said adding that “we therefore urge you to ensure quality service delivery in line with extant laws, particularly in supporting the government quest to improve revenue generation and minimize the monolithic dependence on oil revenue” she noted.
