“We will aggressively bring people into tax net”—Adeosun

Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance announced on Tuesday of government’s resolve to aggressively get every taxable citizen into the tax net and ensure they pay correctly.

She disclosed this in Abuja at the launch of the regional economic outlook on sub-Sahara Africa, stating that the fact that a lot of people do not pay tax, impacts negatively on the ability of the government to deliver on development.

The regional economic outlook report on sub-Sahara African in 2017, titled, ‘Restarting the growth engine” indicates a slow growth in about two-thirds of the countries in the region which accounts for 83 percent of the regional GDP. The report shows notes this as the region’s worst performance in more than two decades.

The report further projects a modest rebound to 2⅟₂ percent in 2017 which will to a large extent be driven by one-off factors in the three largest countries—a recovery in oil production in Nigeria, higher public spending ahead of elections in Angola and the fading of drought effects in South Africa combined with modest improvements in their terms of trade.

According to the minister, the analysis highlighted the role of the international monetary fund (IMF) in disseminating information on global macroeconomic and financial issues as it promote the stability of the international monetary system.

She further explained that the sub-Saharan Africa countries to improve on the informal sector with a view to realizing the best potential of the sector.

She said “so many people are multiple income earners but they focus and pay taxes only from one source of income whereas they have other sources of income, while some do not pay at all especially those in the informal sector”.

She explained that the country need a good tax system that will ensure that everyone pays the right value of tax due to them.

“As a country, we need a good tax system because it enables everyone pay the right tax value and pay it correctly” she said.

According to her, taxation is a legal obligation for everyone and not a function of what we feel or personal decision stressing thatNigerians need to erase the idea of tax payment as it relate to services enjoyed.

She said “We need to erase the idea of we are not paying tax because we are not receiving the services, the requirement to pay tax is a legal obligation it is not a function of whether we want to or whether we feel there is a value”.

At the moment, Nigeria has tax to GDP ratio of six percent, the lowest in the world and has only 13 million tax payers. Out of this number, 12.5 million are P.A.Y.E. The nation’s economic recovery blueprint launched recent by President Buhari targets 15 percent tax to GDP of 15 percent by 2020.

“It is the aim of the government to get the tax to GDP ratio increased because that is what gives us the headway to carry out social investment and projects for the people, as part of the economic recovery and growth plan we have decided to take control of both the oil sector and tax to have a much more robust and sustainable economy”.

Godwin Emefiele, governor of central bank of Nigeria stated that there is need for the nation to think outside the box and device other ways of survival instead of relying on one source of income- oil.

He said “this is a call for us to look inward, the Nigeria economy is almost independent as we import everything both those items we can produce and those we cannot produce. I think it is time we start encouraging local production”.

 

Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja