The TETFund boss noted that the agency “wants to presume
from reports and available data that the FIRS met and surpassed its target for
the Year 2021 tax revenue,” expressing concerns why the EDT collection “for the
same was far below the target set for the year.”
Bogoro said: “Interestingly, we want to presume from reports
and available data that the FIRS met and surpassed its target for the Year 2021
tax revenue. It is therefore worrisome that the EDT collection for the same was
far below the target set for the year.”
He warned that the current amount below previous remittances
would endanger the provision of critical infrastructure in the nation’s
tertiary institutions if allowed to continue.
Bogoro stated this in Jos on Tuesday during a joint
interactive forum between TETFund and FIRS officials to enhance education tax
collection and the agencies’ relationship. He was represented by the agency’s
Director of Strategic Planning, Mr. Erivwo Inene.
“In 2021, the Fund received an Education tax collection of
N189 billion, which was considerably lower than the previous year collection.
The Fund is equally aware that economic activities seriously slowed down, and
in some cases, halted from March when the lockdown was imposed and movement
within the restricted,” Bogoro explained.
He added that it affected the performance of industries and
companies, “which affected education tax collection for the year.”
He described the situation as a wake-up call to improve and
deploy new ways to ensure the efficient and timely collection of EDT in 2022.
He noted that despite the negative effects of the COVID-19
pandemic in the education sector, TETFund made modest achievements providing
essential infrastructure, including equipment and instructional materials,
training and development programme, research and funding of other critical
activities directed by the Federal Government.
“It might interest you to know that while the Fund has made
a significant impact on infrastructural development, it has also made
remarkable improvement in the content-based component of its interventions,”
added Bogoro. “The repeated increase in the National Research Fund intervention
from N5 billion, to N7.5 billion in 2020 to N8.5 billion in 2021 is a case in
point. The funding and establishment of 12 centres of excellence in selected
beneficiary institutions each in 2020 and 2021 is another notable achievement.”
Last year, the agency started Capacity Building Programme
for institutions with the objective of improving the global competitiveness and
visibility of our universities, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development for
Polytechnics, and Pedagogy Skills and Curriculum Development for Colleges of
Education.
Commenting on the outgone year, the Executive Chairman of
FIRS, Muhammad Nami, explained that 2021 was challenging. He, however, admitted
that FIRS was able to hit 100 per cent of its target of N9.5 trillion despite
the pandemic.
Nami, represented by the FIRS’ Coordinating Director (Compliance
Support Group), Dr. Dick Irri, said the tax agency was doing its best to
improve tax collection in the country, including deploying in-house tax
administration software.
He stressed the need for TETFund and FIRS to collaborate
more to achieve their various mandates. According to him, the synergy between
the agencies is vital to the transformation evident in public tertiary
institutions across Nigeria.
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