Nigerian Tax Payers Grows by Five Million in one year

FEC to receive amendments to tax policy soon, says Osinbajo

Five amendment bills and two Executive Orders will soon be submitted to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval in order to change Nigeria’s National Tax Policy.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this disclosure on Wednesday in Abuja at the 20th annual tax conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).

According to Vice President Osinbajo, the “implementation Committee for the new tax Policy’s work has since produced five amendment bills and two Executive Orders; all of which will shortly be presented to the Federal Executive Council for approval.

The specific mandate of the Committee he said included the removal of obsolete, ambiguous and contradictory provisions in our tax laws, simplification of the tax payment process, and the reduction of the tax burden on micro, small and medium enterprises.



The need to change Nigeria’s tax policy the Vice President said has become necessary because “for too long Nigeria has tried to carry on as an oil-rich country, one without the need for its citizens’ taxes. The unwritten compact has been something along the lines of pay whatever taxes you can pay, but it’s really no big deal. In exchange, we, as government, get the right to do whatever we like with Nigeria’s oil wealth.”

This arrangement he lamented, has fueled the massive corruption and inefficiencies that have come to be associated with public revenue management.

The government of President Muhammadu Buhari, Osinbajo revealed “is working to change this state of affairs. We are determined to restore the full weight of the social contract. We are rewriting the old rules and compacts; making it clear to Nigerians that we will ensure that every naira of public money is put to use for the maximum good of the Nigerian people, while simultaneously ensuring that every naira due to the public coffers in taxes is promptly and efficiently collected.”

He reiterated that the Treasury Single Account (TSA’s) unified system of bank accounts domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has proven to be far more transparent and cost-effective than the old scenario in which government agencies maintained thousands of accounts across various commercial banks.

As a result of the TSA, “the Federal Government realizes monthly savings of at least N4 billion which would have gone on commercial bank charges” he said.

The Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), the Vice President elaborated “has also tightened controls on the federal payroll and pensions systems, eliminating tens of thousands of ghost workers and saving us more than N200 billion that would have gone to these ghost workers.”



With the introduction of the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS), Osinbajo urged tax administrators particularly members of the CITN “to keep in mind that, that extra income is taxable, and, to whom much is given, much is expected.”

Going forward, the federal government the Vice President said is “working to adapt our tax laws for the digital age, one in which commerce has become borderless and intangible, and to which the old laws no longer apply. E-Filing is a rapidly growing concept which we are very keen to extend to taxpayers at all levels across the country.”

The Vice President also disclosed that the number of economically-active Nigerian tax payers is now in excess of 19 million, and still growing from only 14 million in May 2017.

This he said “means that the efforts of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), in collaboration with the State Inland Revenue Services, have already added more than five million new taxpayers to the tax base.

Earlier, president and chairman of council of the CITN, Chief Cyril Ikemefuna Ede, said the “heartbeat of any economy is its deft use of taxation for promoting economic growth and development. Through taxation, government ensures that resources are channeled towards important and critical activities in the society. Thus the imposition of taxes is essential to economic and social development in any given economy.”

http://thenationonlineng.net/fec-to-receive-amendments-to-tax-policy-soon-says-osinbajo/

Na only mouth you get. You should change your name to Onukwube Osimbande

Donald95:
Na only mouth you get. You should change your name to Onukwube Osimbande

Wetin you get?

This means more money. So stop borrowing and let's see what you are using the money for.

Thank you sir.

RedeemNigeria:
This means more money. So stop borrowing and let's see what you are using the money for.

Thank you sir.

Borrowing will soon stop as tax payers number increases