Out of the N8.5tn revenue target set by the Federal Government for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, about N4tn is expected to be generated from the extractive sector of the Nigerian economy in the 2020 fiscal year.

The Executive Chairman, FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Nami, said this on Tuesday in Abuja when a team of the Nigerian office of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development visited the Headquarters of FIRS.

A statement from the FIRS said the chairman solicited the support of the OECD in checking the issue of tax evasion among multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria.

These companies, he said, engaged in the illegal activities of transfer pricing under which they evade tax in Nigeria and transfer their profit offshore.

Nami said the FIRS needed capacity-building support, information sharing, data interpretation, usage and related technical synergy with the OECD.

This, he stated, would help the Service to meet tax revenue targets in the extractive industry and the emerging digital economy.

The FIRS chairman observed that the revolution in Information and Communication Technology has made physical filing of tax returns obsolete.

Nami said “ICT has also made tax collection more complex, especially in trans-border trade and trans-continental commerce in which big players like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Alibaba, and other e-commerce corporations do big business around, drive the digital economy and yet countries find it difficult to take due tax from the huge economic activities these online giants engage in.

“This is more so for developing countries like Nigeria where our people buy luxury goods more and more online while these big online stores don’t pay any tax to us here in Nigeria.

“The complexity of the digital economy to the tax authorities also extends to the telecommunication and financial sectors, including the emerging trades and the exchange carried out using digital currency.”

The statement also said the FIRS and the Federal Fire Service have resolved to work closely to protect public property and records from possible fire outbreaks.

Both organizations made this commitment on Tuesday in Abuja when the Comptroller-General Federal Fire Service, Dr. Liman Ibrahim, also visited the FIRS Headquarters in Abuja.

Nami commended the Fire Service for coming to the rescue of the FIRS last year during a fire incident.

In his response, the CG pledged to work with the FIRS to protect the Service’s offices and valuable documents against the fire outbreak.