Finance minister urges TAT commissioners to discharge duties with integrity, professionalism

The newly inaugurated Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT) Commissioners have been urged to discharge their duties with high level of professionalism, integrity, diligence and fairness to all parties.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed who stated this on Monday while inaugurating the new commissioners in Abuja, also implored the commissioners to avoid unnecessary delays and adjournment of cases, but their decisions should be in line with tax laws.

A statement by the special adviser to the Minister of Finance on media and communications, Mr Paul Ella Abechi, quoted the minister as saying that the government’s desire to achieve sustainable growth and development of the economy informed the concerted efforts made by successive governments to reform the Nigerian tax system, among others.

According to her, 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.

She noted that the establishment of the Tribunal marked a very significant milestone in the annals of the nation’s tax dispute resolution mechanism.

“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.

“As an essential component of the ‘change’ agenda of the present administration, Nigeria launched a Revised National Tax Policy in January 2017 and provided tax amnesty platform through the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme.

“The current tax policy of the government places emphasis on areas of harnessing all necessary inputs towards achieving voluntary tax compliance.

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.

“The government has strengthened the Tax Appeal Tribunal by ensuring that the tribunal is constituted across the six gee-political zones in addition to the ones in Lagos and Abuja for ease and accessibility by the taxpayers.

Additionally, we have also expanded the Lagos Tribunal to three panels in order to facilitate the timely resolution of appeals emanating from Lagos.

Going forward, the government is working towards the strengthening of the operations and legal framework of the Tax Appeal Tribunal in line with the recommendation of the National Tax Policy Review Committee,” said the finance minister.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, had said, the Tax Appeal Commissioners being inaugurated today are “expected to hold office for a term of three years, which is subject to renewal for another term of three years only”.

He noted that the Tribunal is one of the windows provided in Nigeria’s tax administration system for an aggrieved party to explore other dispute resolution mechanisms before gaining access to the Law Courts.

Amongst other things, it helps to reduce the caseload of the over-laden regular courts by providing less formal fora for quicker, cheaper and expert resolution of tax disputes in the public interest.