Council scores 3rd national business action plan 68% — Enelamah
Plan
By Donald Ugwu
Abuja, April 9, 2018(NAN)The Presidential Enabling Business Council (PEBEC) on Monday reviewed the performance of the National Action Plan 3 of the Ease of Doing Business and scored it 68 per cent in overall performance.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah gave the report to state House correspondents after the PEBEC meeting which reviewed the result of the National Action Plan 3.
According to him, the Council found out that there are things which can be done to improve that percentage and consequently approved a two-week extension to get them done since the objective is to score as much as possible.
“”We reviewed in detail all the reforms and we had many of the reform champions as well as the relevant agents in the room who made commitments to work together to take these reforms as far as possible.
“”The goal is to complete many of these reforms by the end of April, which is at the time when the World Bank would then do its own review for the nest World Bank ranking.
““So as you can imagine we have all hands on deck and we are all very committed to working to make sure that we keep improving and getting better,’’ the minister said.
Enelamah explained that the Council reviewed 79 reforms targeted at improving the nation’s business environment and all had pleasing results.
Explaining further, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Babatunde Fowler, said the Council discussed basically the different measures the federal and state governments were taking in terms of the Ease of Doing Business.
He said that in the area of tax payments FIRS had deployed technology so that customers could file online while for those unable to file online computers were deployed in 143 locations across the nation and tax officers would assist them to file.
““We have deployed technology in the area of passenger control at the airport; prior to now you have a sticker saying you have paid some tax and someone will tear that sticker off.
“”Right now you can print your boarding pass at home and go straight and board the flight once you pass security.
“”The Vice President is getting an update before the World Bank rating is done, which closes April 30. We are just monitoring how far different agencies of government have gone so far,’’ he stated.
According to Fowler the Council is expecting upward movement in the ranking after moving 24 points in 2017.
He said that with the different measures put in place by government in terms of goods clearance, handling airport passengers, tax payment and the roles of NAFDAC and other agencies things would certainly improve.
The FIRS boss stated that the agency had moved 11 steps in tax collection adding that it had added a lot of technology in the collection which enhanced transparency in the system.
He said that anytime one paid ones taxes with one’s tax identification Number one got an alert on ones registered e-mail address.
Fowler stated that anywhere in the world the payer could download his receipt, confirm the genuineness of the receipt online, and pay taxes through any banking application.
“Basically you can perform all your tax functions without coming to the tax office,’’ he stated.
He said that the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) which ended recently was quite successful.
Fowler, however, noted that people at the last moment rushed in with many applications which were also being treated at the state and federal levels.
““For those who believe they are still trying to put their figures together they should do so and drop it at their state revenue agency, board of internal revenue, or any FIRS office and it will still be accepted,’’ he said.(NAN)
DCU/YAZ
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