By Adedapo Adesanya
**National Assembly Passes 2022 Finance Bill, FIRS Gets New Name
Wednesday’s plenary was filled with activities in the National Assembly in Abuja as the House of Representatives passed the 2023 appropriation bill at N21.83 trillion, just as the Senate has passed the 2022 supplementary budget of N819.5 billion.
This showed an increase of N1.32 trillion from the N20.51 trillion budget proposal of President Muhammadu Buhari. Prior to this, the 2023 budget is already the highest in the nation’s history.
A breakdown of the budget indicates an allocation of N967.5 billion for statutory transfers, N6.6 trillion for debt servicing, N8.3 trillion for recurrent expenditure, and N5.9 trillion for capital expenditure.
According to the upper chamber, the amendment of the 2022 Appropriation Act is to ensure the implementation of the key capital project in the Act, which has not been funded at this time.
The upper chamber said it is expedient that the capital projects be extended to prevent the problem of abandoning projects in the budget.
The supplementary budget is to address food security following devastating floods across the country as well as damages to road infrastructure and the water sector.
The National Assembly also passed the Finance Bill, which proposes key reforms to specific taxation, customs, excise, and fiscal laws.
The bill amends several laws, namely the Capital Gains Tax Act, Companies Income Tax Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Petroleum Profits Tax Act, as well as Stamp Duties Act, Value Added Tax, and Public Procurement Act.
Presenting a report on the Finance Bill, the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Mr Solomon Adeola, said the bill is intended to enhance tax equity by bringing more economic sectors into the tax net and ensuring a fairer distribution of revenue receipts to all tiers of government.
The 2022 Finance Bill seeks to change the name of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to Nigeria Revenue Service.
The board is to be headed by a chairman who is separate from the management. The management will be headed by a chief executive who will be known as the Commissioner General.
The bill also increases the rate of the tertiary education trust fund tax from 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent.
