Experts have said that the
new national tax policy is capable of reducing the number of taxes to less than
20, and the number of agencies reduced or merged to only one per level of
government.
The policy is also capable
of growing tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio from 15 to 20 per cent by
2020, curbing non-compliance with existing tax laws and discouraging the use of
tax havens. Besides, it can also help create low tax rates for small and medium
enterprises with exemption to the poor providing robust information, proper
utilisation and transparent reporting for the citizenry.
This was disclosed by
Partner, West Africa Tax Leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Taiwo Oyedele, at a joint seminar
organised by the Chartered Institute of
Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and PwC
Nigeria in Lagos a few days ago.
Taiwo Oyedele posited that
if duly complied with by all citizenry and monitored closely, it will serve as
an instrument to fight corruption and resolve the country’s economic woes. Oyedele,
who doubles as Dean, Direct Tax Faculty, CITN, said tax is the lifeblood of the
economy. Revenue in Nigeria is so small; the little we collect is either wasted
or stolen. Therefore, we have wastage and corruption as our next problem.
“The reason why I
said tax can help us solve problem is that tax can help to raise revenue. When
people steal or waste money, a lot of it liable to taxes. They are not exempted
from tax like Esta-code is taxable. If you use tax to force people to present
information about the income and revenue they have earned and therefore in some
cases they make it public, then people are more careful in stealing next time,” he said.
Giving an analogy, Oyedele
said: “If a person has a house and has not paid
personal income tax, he could be jailed if found guilty. It is a criminal
offense if you did not declare your income and pay your taxes rightly, which is
even in the constitution. Combined effect of tax can be the sole reason why we
begin to solve all Nigerian problems.”
Co-Founder and Lead
Partner, BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde,
said government’s spending plan contains some high points, including the
allocation of substantial funds to critical infrastructure and social services.
He noted that borrowing substantially to reflate the economy is equally
promising at face value, but with an increasingly tight domestic capital market
environment, government may struggle to evade being in the red.
He stressed that there is a
need to block all leakages, while expanding Nigeria’s revenue base, otherwise,
the country risked languishing in self-inflicted fiscal subjugation, which
could further escalate the current economic recession into a much undesirable
and undeserved depression.
In her remarks, President
CITN, Dr. (Mrs) Teju Somorin, urged
government to curtail its spending, stating that the expenditure profile of
government in some cases may not be reasonable. “We
have to be reasonable with the expenditure we spend. The issue of transparency
and accountability is key for every level of government. We should be
accountable in every facet of our lives. We should try as much as possible to
leave good marks in everywhere and everything we do,” she added. (Guardian)
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