ABUJA  – Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Min­ister of Finance, said there might be introduction of new tariffs and levies in 2022 as the economy was now on a recovery path.

Ahmed made this known while addressing stakeholders at a pub­lic hearing on the 2021 Finance Bill organised by the House of Repre­sentatives Committee on Finance on Monday in Abuja.

She said that a couple of reforms and amendments had been recommended in the draft 2021 Finance Amendment Bill, saying that more will be introduced in the middle of 2022.

The minister said that modest changes had been proposed but that more fiscal reforms were still in view as the ministry could not take all the proposals collected from stakeholders.

“Our aspiration is to do a midterm review with a pos­sibility of another Finance Bill in mid-year 2022 to bring in more amendments,” she said.

The minister said that there are ongoing legal cases in court against the Federal Government on VAT and Stamp Duties which was why the ministry stayed off those areas.

She, however, expressed hope that by mid-2022, the cases might have been dis­pensed with and then re­forms in those areas could be proposed for parliament to consider.

Ahmed said that there might be need to revisit the antiquated Stamp Duties and Capital Gains Tax for holistic reform by the par­liament.

“We prepared this draft bill along five reform areas, the first domestic revenue mobilisation, the second is tax administration and leg­islative drafting, third is in­ternational taxation, fourth is financial sector reforms and tax equity and fifth is improving public financial management reform.

“The provision in the draft bill is proposing to amend the Capital Gains Tax Act, Company Income Tax, FIRS Establishment Act, Personal Income Tax, Stamp Duties Act and Ter­tiary Education Act, Value Added Tax, Insurance Police Trust Fund and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“This is to amend the Po­lice Trust Fund Act and the Nigerian Trust Fund Acts, the purpose is to empower the FIRS to collect the Ni­gerian Trust Fund levies on companies on behalf of the fund itself.

“Currently, because there is no such provision, the FIRS is unable to start col­lecting on behalf of the fund. Also, it is to streamline the tax and the levy collection from the Nigerian compa­nies in line with Mr. Presi­dent’s administration ease of doing business policy.

“So we do not have NASE­NI going out to collect that tax, the FIRS will collect on their behalf during their col­lection process and it will be passed through to them,’’ she said.