President Bola Tinubu has directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. George Akume, to commence the implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee in ministries, agencies and departments the Federal Government.
Tinubu gave the directive on Tuesday when he received the report on the quick-win achievements of the committee from its Chairman, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, a tax expert, at the State House, Abuja.
He directed the Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Ms. Hadiza Usman, to liaise with the SGF and Oyedele to carry out the directive.
Briefing State House correspondents after the submission of the report, the Presidential spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, said the President would present the recommendations during next week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC).
He told newsmen: “After listening to a presentation by the committee chairman, the President directed the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, to liaise with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Chairman of the Tax Policy Review Committee to ensure that the recommendations of the committee are swiftly and immediately implemented across all ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal government to ensure that there is effective synergy and to ensure that every institution of the federal government is on the same page with respect to how tax policy will be implemented.
“Henceforth, His Excellency Mr. President has also made available an opportunity for the recommendations of the tax policy review committee to be made a top most priority at the next sitting of the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday. Mr. President will continue to emphasize the importance of ensuring that our tax authorities are not taxing the seed, but are taxing the fruit, and that will continue to be the focus.”
Oyedele also told newsmen that the government was planning to prune the list of officially collectable taxes and levies which currently exceeds 60.
Accompanied by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr Zacch Adedeji, Oyedele said the committee planned to consolidate and reduce the taxes at all levels of government to less than 10.
“We have started the process of revising the country’s tax laws as part of the process of birthing a standard and more effective tax administration and this is in line with the committee’s core goals of reforming the tax policy of the country and reducing barriers against businesses in Nigeria.
“Restructuring the country’s tax system will not be achievable through the courts; for instance the Value Added Tax (VAT), but by bringing together stakeholders and approaching the National Assembly.”
According to Oyedele, more than 200 different taxes currently exist in the country which had caused pain and hardships for Nigerians.
“We have over 60 taxes and levies, officially collectible by federal government, state governments and local governments.
“Unofficially, those taxes are over 200, making life difficult for our people. So the objective we have, and that’s what we’re working towards, is to bring all of that to a single digit.
“So the taxes at all levels of government combined, we think should be less than 10 because actually about 96%, actually more than that, of our revenue across federal, states, local governments, currently is generated from less than 10 taxes and we have seen countries like South Africa generating more than our entire national tax revenue from just one tax.
“There is no evidence to show, in fact, the contrary is true that the more the number of taxes you have, actually the less revenue you collect because it just creates the opportunity for leakages and some non-state actors collecting money and keeping it to themselves.
“We were speaking to traders, MATAN (Market Traders Association of Nigeria) and they said to us, people selling pure water in the market collect seven tickets every single day.
“Why should someone who is just trying to hawk pure water to keep body and soul together have to pay seven taxes on a daily basis? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to us,” Oyedele said.
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