The Senate is poised to liaise with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on the six per cent Stamp Duty on rent, lease and others recently introduced by the agency.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central), who disclosed this while speaking with newsmen in Abuja at the weekend, noted that though the FIRS had the mandate to generate revenue for the Federal Government through taxes, it cannot afford to be “arbitrary” in the discharge of that responsibility.
According to him, there is a limit to which the revenue generation agency could exercise discretion in introducing taxes.
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While expressing the belief that the FIRS would not go beyond its mandate, the lawmaker noted that since the Senate Committee on Finance is already mandated to interface with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), the new tax regime would form part of their discussions.
His words: “FIRS has a mandate to generate revenue for the country within the extant laws and the Act establishing the agency. In doing that, they cannot be arbitrary.
“There is a limit to the discretion they have. I’m convinced that FIRS knows well enough not to do anything outside of their mandate.”
