Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mr. Tunde Fowler, has asked tax administrators to deploy psychology and persuasion, rather than enforcement of law, technology and mobilisation in getting people to pay.

According to him, the persuasion of taxpayers that N5,000 tax is enough to save a child from dying of malaria is enough to win their hearts on the need to pay tax.

Fowler, who made the observation in the lead paper he delivered at the annual Tax Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana, CITG, Strategies For Revenue Mobilisation, in Contemporary Times: Challenges in Tax Legislation” in Accra, Ghana, said his success in establishing a connect between tax contribution of as little as N5000 and the life of a child who might die from malaria, touched the hearts of some taxpayers in Lagos who turned a new leaf and became compliant taxpayers.

He told tax practitioners and administrators, from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cote D’ivoire and other parts of the West African sub-region, that beyond deploying the law, enforcement, technology and mobilization, tax administrators must deploy a medley of psychology, persuasion and being firm to convince their fellow countrymen.