The federal government through the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, has told of its plan to regulate the crypto industry.
Searchlight has been beamed on the industry resulting in the exit of Binance.
The latter was accused by the federal government of manipulating the naira-to-dollar exchange rate.
Another fallout of the intense scrutiny is a 7.5 per cent Value-Added Tax imposed on crypto transaction fees.
Those said, by the sounds of Adedeji’s statement on Saturday at a stakeholders’ engagement with the Senate and House Committee on Finance organised by the Intergovernmental Relations Department of the Service themed: ‘Repositioning The FIRS To Achieve Its Mandate,’ the industry will soon experience regulation.
According to the FIRS boss, the agency is in the process of sending a bill to the National Assembly to that effect.
His own words,, “The plan first is to have the law that regulates it, and that is why you see that we are here with the legislature, which will be the base of charging. And that is done in any other place in the world when you have this innovation or system, so you just have to get ready for it because you can’t go away from it. So we just have to plan to regulate it in such a way that it is not injurious to the economic development of Nigeria.
“Just to put you on notice, by September, we are proposing a law that would overhaul the whole process of revenue administration in Nigeria, harmonising, recoding and simplifying the tax laws that we have. For example, in the Stamp Duty Act of 1939, when there was no internet connection, we needed to bring it up.
“Today, we cannot run away from cryptocurrency but as we stand today, there is no law anywhere in Nigeria that regulates cryptocurrency. We cannot run away from it.”
