The Federal Capital Territory Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS), says it has embarked on an aggressive drive to capture more people in the informal sector in its tax net.
The Acting Chairman of the service, Mr Haruna Abdullahi said while fielding questions on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
He said while public servants formed the bulk of taxpayers in the FCT, constituting more than 90 per cent, the service had mapped out strategies to fully capture the informal sector.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that people in the informal sector are those who are not directly under government regulation and are largely unregistered.
These set of people include vulcanisers, commercial motorcyclists, commercial drivers, hair stylists and fashion designers among others.
Abdullahi said that capturing the informal sector in the FCT tax net would go a long way in expanding the revenue base of the service.
“When we give a breakdown of our collections, taxes from Pay as You Earn (PAYE) is always significantly the highest form of collection that we have.
“Those under PAYE are salary earners, public servants mainly those in the formal sector and of course employers of labour.
“So, what the service is doing is to say everyone must contribute to the basket.
“You cannot be sitting and you are not contributing to the basket.
“We are engaging the formal, informal sector, high net worth individuals as well as low net worth individuals in the tax net.
“If you look at the structure of our collections, the PAYE has started going down.
“Meanwhile, other forms of collection like direct assessment where individuals and business people file their returns is increasing,” he said.
Abdullahi said the drive would continue until a substantial part of the informal sector was captured by the service.
