The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) on Thursday interactive forum with theme; “Boosting Education Tax Collection for the Growth and Advancement of Tertiary Education in Nigeria” with a commitment to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of the fund.
This is as the Fund commended the management of Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) for increase on education tax collection describing it as a noble cause between the agencies.
Mr Erivwo Irene, the Director Strategic Planning and Development, speaking at the forum which held in Port Harcourt said TETFund duly recognized the immense contribution, of FIRS mandate as the foremost and critical Revenue Service of the Federal Government from which we as a funding agency of the same government derive our intervention and operational funds.
He said; “We will therefore continue to encourage this annual interactive forum with the FIRS which has been a veritable platform to discuss issues that are pertinent to the Education Tax (EDT) collection and also showcase the activities and impact of the EDT collection in the tertiary education landscape of the nation.
“Indeed, the need to boost “Education Tax (EDT) Collection”, especially at this economically challenging period can never be overemphasized.
“This is in view of the pivotal role it plays in the nation’s educational system as deployed by the Fund and is one of the many vital reasons this Interactive Forum is highly essential in the general operations of the Fund,” Echono said.
He stressed that tax collections has direct correlation to earnings and consequently, the growth of any functional economic system.
“Invariably therefore, the growth of education tax which forms the bedrock of TETFund’s vision and mission in the nation’s education is one that is consistently on the front burner”, he declared.
Echono explained the need for TETFund and the FIRS to increase its drive in education tax collection to enable the Fund meet up with the challenges and its commitment to the development of our tertiary education systems.
He announced that the TETFund in 2021 received an EDT collection of N189-billion, which was considerably lower than the previous year’s collection and posed a serious challenge to the intervention activities of the agency for year 2022.
“As at September this year, the education tax collection was reported to have recorded over N309-billion Naira, exceeding the N305-billion target set by the FIRS for the year.
“This explains my earlier excitement and hope of an improved revenue generation ultimately attaining a N500-billion yearly EDT collection.
“This optimism can be situated in the consistent position of President Muhammadu Buhari when he stated that, “we do not have a debt sustainability problem, but a revenue challenge which we are determined to tackle to ensure our debts remain sustainable,” he said.
In his remark, the Executive Chairman FIRS, Mr Muhammad Nami, also commended the efforts of the Board of Trustees and Management of TETFund for steadfastly organising the annual forum.
Nami, represented by Mr Hamisu Mohammed, FIRS Coordinator for Rivers, Delta and Edo, said despite the economic headwinds from the negative consequences of covid 19, rising insecurity and effects of the Russia-Ukraine war on the global economy, FIRS had continued to make progress in revenue mobilization.
According to him, January to September 2022, FIRS has collected N7.5trillion which is a significant improvement on the total collection of N6.4trillion for the entire 2021.
“Non-oil taxes accounted for N4.3trillion while Petroleum Profits Tax accounted for N3.1trillion, It is clear that the reforms undertaken since 2020 have started yielding the desired results.
“Tertiary Education Tax also improved significantly since the beginning of 2022, we have collected N309billion as of September 2022, which is above the total N305-billion budgeted for the full year.
“I assure you that we will continue to ensure that no revenue gap is left uncovered in our quest to improve tax administration with particular emphasis on full deployment of technology across our service lines and internal operations.
“I assure you all that the FIRS will continue to support TETFund to achieve her mandate of providing critical support to tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
“We seek the collaborative partnership of our stakeholders to ensure that revenue leakages are fully blocked,” he said.
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