The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) has urged its members to work towards the promotion of healthy tax practices in the country.
Mr Adesina Adebayo, CITN National President, gave the advice on Friday in Abakaliki while inaugurating the new state executives of the institute elected at the institute’s 2022 Annual Generating Meeting (AGM) held in the Ebonyi capital.
Adebayo noted that as a body of professionals the institute must leverage its expertise to promote credible and healthy tax practices that would meet international best practices.
He urged the new leadership to ensure healthy collaboration with government agencies to enhance healthy tax practices that would lead to the building of an economically virile nation.
He implored the inductees to be diligent and steadfast in the discharge of their duties and abide by the institute’s code of competence.
“The institute, Ebonyi and indeed our dear nation are expecting a lot from you, so you must strive to be above board and ensure that all your actions and activities are geared toward promoting healthy tax practices in the state,” Adebayo said.
Earlier, Mrs Justina Nnachi, the first elected chairperson of the Abakaliki and District Society of CITN, promised to take the body to a greater height.
Nnachi expressed gratitude to God and the members of CITN in Ebonyi for her emergence and pledged to work for the greater good of the institute.
She used the occasion to unveil her administration’s six-point agenda aimed at achieving best practices that would place the district at par with its counterparts in other states.
“Following my emergence as the first female chairman of this institute, I have come to terms that a lot needs to be done to place the district on a higher pedestal in the comity of other districts in Nigeria.
“I pledge to uphold the professional ethics and ideals of the association while serving as the chairperson of the district and with the support of my executive members, we can move the institute to the height we all clamour for,” Nnachi said.
She explained that the crash in oil revenue had made it imperative for tax practitioners to work in synergy with the Federal Government for improved tax advocacy, tax advisory and enforcement of good tax regimes for the nation’s economic sustainability.
“My team and I have developed a blueprint in line with the long-term strategic mandate of the institute, which we hope to aggressively pursue to launch the institute into the next level.
“We are going to undertake citizenship tax education which will involve enlightenment and awareness of the privileges that accrue to obedient taxpayers and the consequences of tax evasion and avoidance,” she said.
