Friday, June 28, 2024 -Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has described Nigeria as a poor country with significant potential for wealth.
During an interview on Channels
Television’s Politics Today, Oyedele pointed out that both the Federal
Government's and states' budgets are relatively small when compared to those of
some other countries and cities.
The Federal Government has faced
criticism for what some perceive as over-taxation, with recent tax law protests
in Kenya reigniting these discussions among Nigerians. However, Oyedele
dismissed the idea of introducing more taxes as a solution to Nigeria’s revenue
challenges. He emphasized that increasing taxes would not effectively address
the country’s financial issues.
He said;
“By the way, the entire budget, that’s the
Federal Government’s of about N29 trillion plus all the states in Nigeria about
N15 trillion – if you add it all, it comes to about N44 trillion. That’s around
$30 billion.
“That $30 billion is even less than the
budget of Kenya which is around $32 billion. It is barely a quarter of South
Africa’s budget at $130 billion. And of course, it’s even less than the budget
of New York City, not even just New York State. So, clearly, Nigeria is a poor
country with the potential to be a wealthy country.
“So, we do believe based on the analysis we
have done and the data available to us that the right way to go is not to
introduce more taxes. And in fact, if you’re going to raise the rates of any
tax, it has to be something that we’re doing as a result of the consolidation
and harmonisation.
“We do think that having fewer taxes are
broad-based, easy to collect, and do not place a burden on the bottom of the
ladder of society is the way to go. And by using data, intelligence, and
technology, we can close the tax gap so that people who have not been paying
before begin to pay – who have been identified as people who should be paying –
and the poor people should be legitimately exempted, particularly nano, micro
businesses and low-income earners.
“And then we think that with all
those, we can easily more than double our revenue within a period of two to
three years.”
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