Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has maintained that Nigeria does not intend to introduce new taxes or impose higher tax rates on Nigerians.
Mr Oyedele disclosed this via X/Twitter on Sunday while clarifying some frequently asked questions about the committee, saying the team is making progress with its work and is on track to meet its deliverables on time according to plan.
Earlier in July, Mr Bola Tinubu approved the establishment of a Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms and appointed Mr Oyedele, who formerly led taxes and fiscal policy at PwC Nigeria, as the chairman of the committee.
The government said the establishment of the committee reflects Mr Tinubu’s commitment to addressing challenges and bringing about transformative reforms in fiscal policy and taxation.
According to the ex-PWC tax head, the committee will work with all levels of government as critical stakeholders to ensure effective collaboration in the design and implementation of necessary fiscal policy changes and localisation of reforms at the subnational level as may be applicable.
He said since there is no plan to increase taxes, the committee would help harmonise revenue collection to reduce the tax burden.
“We do not intend to introduce new taxes or impose higher tax rates. Rather, our mandate is to reduce the number of taxes and levies while harmonising revenue collection to reduce the burden on the people and businesses.”
Nigeria has a tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 10.8 per cent; comparatively, the average tax-to-GDP ratio for Africa is about 18 per cent. According to Mr Oyedele, this is the basis for the target of 18 per cent and the estimated tax gap of N20 trillion.
“There is a huge opportunity to generate revenue by leveraging technology and tax intelligence to close the tax gap.
“In addition, we will rationalize incentives, reduce the cost of collection, and optimise revenue from government assets and natural resources. This way, we can generate more revenue without introducing new taxes.”
He reiterated that no agency has been stopped from collecting revenue as many of them are empowered to do so by law. However, many of the agencies would rather focus on their primary functions.
To this effect, he said, “We intend to harmonise the fragmented revenue collection functions into one agency for each government. This is the case in many countries, including the leading tax regimes in Africa. This reform will help to improve efficiency and enable the agencies to focus on their primary mandates for the overall benefit of the economy.”
