FG urged to balance tax supervision to save economy

The Federal Government has been urged to blend the tax supervision in Nigeria so as to prevent breakdown of the economy.

The call was made by Tracy Kporo, managing director of NG Buzz Executive, during the 2023 Made-in-Nigeria awards held in Abuja.

Kporo also stressed the need for permitting the environment, adding that such would encourage and surge the energies of domestic producers of goods and services.

On the awards, NG Buzz boss explained that the awards structure has been intended to identify and publicize the most outstanding made-in-Nigeria products and services, which according to her, would in turn provide direct marketing for the awarded products.

Explaining further she said, “The awards will also encourage increased efforts by Nigeria’s domestic producers of goods and services to deliver products and services that are competitive against the local counterparts and imported alternatives on both domestic and foreign markets, by establishing high standards business activity models for other producers to emulate.”

Speaking also at the event, Ogbonna Uchechukwu, executive officer, TPAVE Ventures Services, and one of the awardees, blamed economic development on poor infrastructure in the country.

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Lamenting on the current economic crises he said, “It has not been easy for us because most of what we use are imported. The cost of production is becoming too high due to the devaluation of naira to other currencies. We can no longer pay our staff regularly because of the increase in the cost of production, we spend much on production but nothing is coming in.

“Hike in the cost of transportation is another issue that is affecting us because we transport these goods from where we bought them and we are spending a lot on this, the situation is frustrating and the government should quickly come to our rescue.

“There are lots of things the government can do to reduce the challenges we are experiencing, if they can work on the electricity and support small and medium industries with loans, it will go a long way because we are the strength of the nation. We create employment’’.

Moses Onah, managing director, Afrishare Limited, and another awardee, who also spoke at the event, identified other challenges affecting local manufacturers to include; local policies, taxes among others. “There are so many levies; taxes that we pay that are not encouraging.

“Secondly, we are working towards domesticating our products in Nigeria but we cannot achieve it because of the epileptic power supply and the poor infrastructure because we have to move our goods on the road and it takes days, weeks and it is a big challenge for us.

“I think if the government can improve in the infrastructure, provide constant power supply and also see how to address the multiple taxes issue as different agencies come to collect from us, it will go a very long way in solving some of the challenges faced by the local producers in the country,” Onah said.