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| Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings |
Elumelu
said this at the Lagos Business School Alumni Association (LBSAA) “2017 Alumni
Day” in Lagos with the theme, “The Effects of Multiple Government Regulations
and Taxation on Business Growth in Nigeria”. He said 5 per cent of the small
businesses that survive after one year were a big disincentive to the nation in
terms of employment creation.
Elumelu
said that multiple business regulation, multiple taxation and inconsistent
government policies affect SMEs’ competitiveness. According to him, multiple
levies by the government and its agencies affect small businesses’ ability to
attract capital in their investment climate.
The
Heirs Holding boss also lamented that despite multiple taxes and levies in the
country, Nigeria remained the lowest in the world with 10 per cent tax
contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“It seems we have a big problem with high taxation and multiple
levies; it is expected we should have very high tax revenue,’’ he said. According to him,
government should find out the reason for the discrepancy for desired growth
and development. He urged government to create a more conducive environment
that would encourage survival of SMEs in order to reduce unemployment rate.
“Governments don’t create jobs, it is the right enabling environment
for SMEs that create jobs,’’
he said, adding that public and private sector partnership was necessary to
tackle the challenges facing the country. “Issue of
multiple taxation is enormous and must be addressed to achieve the desired
growth,’’ Elumelu stated. He called on the government to streamline all
taxation and levies across the three tiers of government to avoid collapse of
SMEs.
Elumelu
said that government must leverage technology to foster automation in tax
collection to reduce tax leakages, stating further that government should
ensure greater awareness to approved taxes and levies to avoid extortion as
well as introduce tax incentives.
Elumelu
said that those who pay taxes should be recognised and encouraged for people to
embrace and pay taxes without being forced. According to him, government should
go beyond focus on operational approach of collecting taxes and find a way of encouraging
people to pay taxes. He also called for a comprehensive review of tax laws in
the country to improve revenue and check excesses at the nation’s ports to
improve foreign exchange earnings.
The
chairman commended the Federal Government for policies introduced to improve
ease of doing business, noting that the measures should be sustained. Elumelu,
however, commended the Lagos Business School (LBS) for creating the platform
and opportunity for economic development, saying that LBS was assisting
organisations to grow through the development of human capital. “To improve performance, you must have the right people to
sharpen competitiveness,” Elumelu said.
Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Head of Tax and
Corporate Advisory Services, PwC Nigeria,
called for the amendment of the country’s constitution to ensure coordination
among the three tiers of government and its agencies. He said that multiplicity
of government agencies with the same work function was becoming worrisome,
noting that, “you don’t need tax incentives for people
to do business; we just need to remove the disincentives.”
Sir Ndukwe Osogho-Ajala, Chairman/Chief Executive
Officer, Soulmate Industries Limited,
said that government needs to encourage SMEs to prosper for them to be able to
pay taxes. He said that government should embrace measures adopted in other
countries to grow tax revenues instead of concentrating on closure of companies
that failed to pay taxes. “You need to grow revenue
before you can collect. We are not growing revenue in Nigeria and that is why
people fail to pay taxes. You don’t shut a place that is generating employment,
you should allow them to make money to pay tax,’’ he stated. (Sun)
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