VDI: MATAN commences training.
The Market Traders Association of Nigeria (MATAN) has started training of workers for the implementation of the Value Added Tax Direct Initiative (VDI). MATAN hopes that the VDI when implemented will pool revenue at the region of N7.7 trillion annually to the coffers of the Federal Government. This is possible because MATAN projects its membership strength to be about 160 million traders.
Training of workers started recently in Akwa Ibom State when hundreds of workers were trained on the job skills which includes how to register members and integrate their data on the VDI digital platform. This is MATAN has also intensified sensitisation and collaboration with stakeholders such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Hunters Association known as Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service to ensure market security.
Three Months ago, MATAN commenced campaigns to capture and enumerate its members nationwide. The exercise is aimed at sensitizing market traders on the benefits of being MATAN members and the need of paying their taxes such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), according to a statement by the National Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS)/MATAN VDI Project Steering Committee, Ambassador Olakunle Johnson.
Ambassador Johnson said the VDI which is being developed by MATAN, the FIRS, Joint Tax Board (JTB) and other stakeholders will trigger massive development in Nigeria as the country will make more revenues from taxes.
The FIRS according to the statement clarified that the VDI is not meant to add more tax burden on the taxpayers, rather, it is a system being developed to eliminate multiple taxation, provide insurance for MATAN members. FIRS Deputy Director, Value Added Tax (VAT), Mr. Adebayo Adefeegbe at a recent event in Abuja emphasized that the initiative will not tax traders whose annual turnover is below Twenty Five Million Naira. He asked traders to join MATAN and support the VDI
“When this initiative is implemented, MATAN and all taxpayers in the informal sector will start paying one single tax once they are registered. That is what we are talking about. That is why the Joint Tax Board is involved because the Board is majorly about individual taxpayers”, he said.
MATAN also announced that national roll-out of the VDI (Haulage and Trade) and Integrated Market Revenue Management System (IMRMS) will go live on January 15, 2024 across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Speaking directly to market traders, Adefeegba added: “The banks are going to support you while MATAN will give you the protection you need. There is going to be insurance cover for all registered members to ensure that your goods are protected while you are on transit. If there is a fire incident that affected your business, once you are registered with MATAN, you can go to sleep because insurance covers you. So, please don’t be afraid of the word VAT. It is for life to get batter for all of us. You must be running a business that has a turn-over of over N25 million before you are asked to pay. This is the keyword there. We thank God for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has said that he wants to eliminate all manner of duplication and multiplication of taxes with the VDI. It is in this same spirit that the Executive Chairman of FIRS, Dr. Zacch Adedeji, embraced the VDI”, he assured.
Similarly, in a statement issued on recently by the Chairman of the FIRS/MATAN VDI National Project Steering Committee, MATAN clarified that the VDI is prepared to stamp out multiple taxation.
He said: “As an association MATAN is buoyed by the need to stamp out multiple taxation and extortion that is endemic in our space over the years. Therefore, in 2021, MATAN launched its Integrated Market Revenue Management System (IMRMS) designed essentially to harmonise members’ revenue-to-government remittance system such as the Personal Income Tax (PIT), VAT, and harness all inherent opportunities of the market place. Our IMRMS is bolstered by the embedded welfare-oriented incentives such as free health insurance to be offered by the NHIA and its accredited HMOs, micro pension scheme to be provided under the guidance of PENCOM and the PFAs, general insurance cover to be provided under the dictates of NAICOM and its accredited insurance companies, low interest and non-collaterised MSMEs and Nano-Business loans/grants by specialised agencies and commercial banks.
“We are pleased to announce that, with the IMRMS, MATAN members nationwide enjoy varieties of embedded incentives and with the VDI, MATAN members become aware of their role as VAT collection and remittance agent of government by making sure that VAT payment is included in all their daily transactions and is being remitted accordingly to FIRS. The VDI is phased into two parts. It covers trade and economic services and also extends to haulage and logistic services. Having secured the approval of our principal and the Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Zacch Adedeji and the JTB, and with the concurrence of our partners, we announce that the rollout commencement of the implementation of the IMRMS and VDI in the following scheduled manner: joint national steering committee press briefing on December 21, 2023, informal sector national stakeholders engagement summit on January 10, 11 and 12, 2024; national rollout of the VDI (haulage and trade) and IMRMS on January 15, 2024 across the country.
Others who spoke in support of the VDI at the event, according to the statement are the JTB, Burke Fraiser Consulting Firm Limited, Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Cyber One, Senator Alphonsus Ubanese, Dr. Felix Johnson Osakwe among others.