The Federal Capital Territory Administration has inaugurated a Capital Gain Tax Implementation Committee to boost internally generated revenue in the territory.

The Mandate Secretary, Economic Planning, Revenue Generation, and Public-Private Partnership, FCTA, Chinedum Kelechi, inaugurated the committee in Abuja on Tuesday.

The committee is to be chaired by the Executive Chairman, FCT-IRS, while the Director of Tax Operations, FCT-IRS, would serve as secretary.

Other members of the committee include the Solicitor General, director, Land Department, director, Development Control, director, Abuja Geographic Information System, and chairman, the Nigerian Bar Association.

Mr Kelechi explained that the committee became necessary following FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s approval for the implementation of the CGT Act, Cap. CI LFN 2004.

“The Act imposes a CGT tax rate of 10 per cent on the total amount of chargeable gains accruable to any person upon disposal of his or her chargeable asset,

“Or assets in a year of assessment after deduction of the allowable expenses from the gains made on the asset’s disposal.

“This is to be remitted to the FCT Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as required by the existing law,” he said.

He added that Mr Wike had equally approved inter-agency collaboration and synergy between the FCT-IRS and other relevant agencies to ensure smooth implementation of the CGT Act.

The mandate secretary said that the committee would conduct comprehensive awareness and education campaigns to improve citizens’ understanding.

He also said that the committee would conduct regular stakeholder engagement through business associations, chambers of commerce, the NBA, and other relevant organisations.

He added that the committee would monitor transactions across stakeholders and agencies as well as enforce the CGT implementation in accordance with existing laws.

Mr Kelechi urged members of the committee to collaborate with the judiciary to handle cases of severe non-compliance or fraud, as well as establish a transparent dispute resolution mechanism, among others.

Earlier, the acting Executive Chairman of FCT-IRS, Haruna Abdullahi, said that the CGT was part of the taxes that FCT-IRS was empowered by law to collect.

Mr Abdullahi decried a situation where the collection of the CGT due to FCT was less than five per cent.

He commended Mr Wike for bringing relevant stakeholders together to work with FCT-IRS to enhance revenue in the territory.

(NAN)