By Dipo Olowookere

Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has disclosed that the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria is around 7 to 8 percent, from about 6 percent it was during the first term of the present administration, which the Accountant said was too low for the country.

She made this disclosure recently in a television interview monitored in Abuja, where she highlighted how she plans to improve the economy of the country by formulating growth-driven policies.

During the interview, the Minister said the nation’s debt portfolio was not high as feared by some Nigerians, stressing that the problem confronting the economy was basically low revenue generation, not high debt profile.

According to her, efforts would be increased towards boosting non-oil revenue in order to bridge the gap and keep the debt to GDP ratio at a manageable level.

“We have to become more efficient in our revenue collection as well as enforcement. Tax to GDP is still 7 or 8 percent to GDP which is too low. Our ERGP target is 15 percent,” she said.

Mrs Ahmed declared that “we have to increase taxes and we have reduced our dependence on oil revenue. We have to increase our non-oil revenue.”

“We have to continue to emphasise our increase in non-oil revenue. Even as we try to maximize what we can’t from the oil revenue,” she added.

Explaining why the ministries of Finance and Budget and National Planning were merged by President Muhammadu Buhari, she said it was purely to ensure better coordination.

“There was the challenge of the implementation of the budget and there was this gap as to what was seen as a priority as seen by the Ministry of Finance and what was seen as the priority as seen by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning.

“Of course, the Ministry of Finance is the treasury so it always had its way because it was the one that was disbursing the funds.

“It created a significant strain and the President decided to bring back the Budget Office to the Ministry of Finance and brought the Planning to the Ministry so that we can maintain the positive trend of linking budget with plans,” the Minister said on the programme.

While admitting that her current mandate “is a very wide one,” she explained that she was already working out how things will work between the planning budget and finance.

“My role is to coordinate all these and make sure that, as much as possible, there are no delays in implementation.”

While commenting on the foreign exchange market in Nigeria, Mrs Ahmed said “there is still a gap and that gap is what we have to bridge and narrow as much as possible from 305 to 360.”

“That is one of our targets,” she stated while disclosing “we have been having a cordial working relationship with the monetary authorities but we have to do more.”

“We did a quick assessment on the ERGP’s impact on households. We have agreed that the priority will have to be agriculture and food security, power, petroleum, as well as, oil and gas, manufacturing, as well as, small and medium enterprises; and the alignment of the fiscal and monetary policies.

“Of course, security and fight against corruption and we added housing and financing of SMEs,” she said.

Mrs Ahmed also said that her team would work more closely with the monetary authorities for better coordination of the economy.

“As a result of the gaps, the monetary authorities are developing or implementing policies that ideally should have been done by the fiscal authorities. So, we have to bridge that gap.

“And maybe because there is not enough impetus from the fiscal side, the monetary authorities appear in some cases to be running faster than the fiscal.

“For me, we have been able to establish an excellent relationship with the CBN and working together, we have to determine things that have to do with tariffs, imports and exports,” she added.

https://businesspost.ng/2019/08/30/nigerias-tax-to-gdp-ratio-rises-to-8/

Tax to GDP is still 7 or 8 percent to GDP which is too low. Our ERGP target is 15 percent,” she said.

Ok slight improvement but you missed target. The goals of ERGP were supposed to be hit by 2020. Alot of the targets were missed hence why I deem it a fail. Nigeria is very pathetic compared to other African countries.

Which mode wey no gree sleep like this

Increasing again

1shortblackboy:
Which mode wey no gree sleep like this

what's your business with that?

Who the tax to GDP ratio ep?We are still the poverty capital of the world

ChiefkeefGB4:
Who the tax to GDP ratio ep?We are still the poverty capital of the world

When something is beyond ur comprehension, stay clear...

We have BBN and Regina thread, those are easy for ur brain capacity..

Stay off thread of this nature ... They are beyond u

Our people don't pay tax but we want an Eldorado in our country. In a country where the likes of Obasanjo who was the head of Nigerian government for more than 15years in all is evading tax, Atiku who was Nigerian vice president for 8 years and also a senior custom officer for many years, and also spending billions in bribery alone is also evading tax but they shout that they want the best for the country. It's certainly an irony of the century.

jeroncomputers:
what's your business with that?

what's your business with my business

The taxes keep going up aswell as debts to pay for their loots because we cant seem to feel the impact of the infrastructures while the indices keep showing the citizens are getting poorer.

.

yeesh

Why are they celebrating it? Finance minister lacks financial capabilities.

6 percent of $540 billion= $32 billion

7 percent of $345 billion = $24.15 billion

Give us a 6 percent tax to GDP of $540 billion without the current hardship.

contigiency:
Our people don't pay tax but we want an Eldorado in our country. In a country where the likes of Obasanjo who was the head of Nigerian government for more than 15years in all is evading tax, Atiku who was Nigerian vice president for 8 years and also a senior custom officer for many years, and also spending billions in bribery alone is also evading tax but they shout that they want the best for the country. It's certainly an irony of the century.

Is it tax that makes an economy to grow or production and export
When u lot want to shift blames
Just know that not all people are dumb

contigiency:
Our people don't pay tax but we want an Eldorado in our country. In a country where the likes of Obasanjo who was the head of Nigerian government for more than 15years in all is evading tax, Atiku who was Nigerian vice president for 8 years and also a senior custom officer for many years, and also spending billions in bribery alone is also evading tax but they shout that they want the best for the country. It's certainly an irony of the century.

just say, you don't pay tax

contigiency:
Our people don't pay tax but we want an Eldorado in our country. In a country where the likes of Obasanjo who was the head of Nigerian government for more than 15years in all is evading tax, Atiku who was Nigerian vice president for 8 years and also a senior custom officer for many years, and also spending billions in bribery alone is also evading tax but they shout that they want the best for the country. It's certainly an irony of the century.

I agree the tax to GDP is low especially for the states. It's not even 1% for alot of states. Assuming they used it prudently its still not much.

What's Buhari doing about tax evaders? If he was serious about war on corruption he'd easily do a two prong approach when dealing with these clowns. Get them on tax evasion charges or corruption charges. FIRS will conducts an audit while EFCC will investigate on other charges. If they aren't washing money there's an easy case.

1shortblackboy:
Which mode wey no gree sleep like this

The one who wants you to achieve you dream. Bank alert for FTC. If you dey expect bank alert na Tax deduction you go receive for this type of FTC.

Watch this great Gospel song from chidinma
Title Holy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZvpISlsfoI

Good development but all these things are stories and inital gra gra. There's a limit to which the Tax-GDP ratio would grow for as long as there is no local production of value that could be taxed. Government should just focus on these three very complicated fiscal issues and I think things could rapidly fall into place.

1. Power
2. Refining and Petrochemical Production.
3. Transportation

OK oh but my Question is this....does it mean that the rate of tax we pay in this country is not yet enough.

My Dad is a civil servant, I know how much tax he pays.

My mom is also a business woman... I know how much tax they do collect from her even on daily basis.

Me, as a student... I know that I do pay tax both directly and indirectly.

Yet, the government is complaining... They should just channel this energy they do impose on this tax issue into recovering and giving account of all the money they recovered from dem looters cos I know that Nigerians do pay tax both directly and indirectly.

God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria

tiredoflife:

Is it tax that makes an economy to grow or production and export When u lot want to shift blames Just know that not all people are dumb

If you don't understand what is being discussed here just read comments...abeg

PureGoldh:
OK oh but my Question is this....does it mean that the rate of tax we pay in this country is not yet enough.

My Dad is a civil servant, I know how much tax he pays.

My mom is also a business woman... I know how much tax they do collect from her even on daily basis.

Me, as a student... I know that I do pay tax both directly and indirectly.

Yet, the government is complaining... They should just channel this energy they do impose on this tax issue into recovering and giving account of all the money they recovered from dem looters cos I know that Nigerians do pay tax both directly and indirectly.

God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria

Not everyone is like u,ur dad n mom that pay their taxes. Millions of Nigerians r still not under the tax net n tax evasion is a common occurrence. With our population we can get more from tax

Average Nigerian lives below 1$ a day Nigeria GDP is not evenly distributed Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world nonsense analysis

Blue3k:


I agree the tax to GDP is low especially for the states. It's not even 1% for alot of states. Assuming they used it prudently its still not much.

What's Buhari doing about tax evaders? If he was serious about war on corruption he'd easily do a two prong approach when dealing with these clowns. Get them on tax evasion charges or corruption charges. FIRS will conducts an audit while EFCC will investigate on other charges. If they aren't washing money there's an easy case.

Supported

Nicely said

Okoroawusa:

If you don't understand what is being discussed here just read comments...abeg

U are the one whio doesn't know Jack
I am more learned in financial talk than u can ever dream of
Stop showing ur illiteracy and blind support for apc
U dont grow an economy by taxing
U grow by trade with nations
Ur export surpassing your import
Simple economics

Nigerians are easily fooled and deceived, what is low revenue generation, the monies already generated what are they used for,which money is NIGERIA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY GENERATE to deserve what the earn and spend as budget? Obasanjo spent 16 billion on NEPA where did the money go,go and recover all the ones stolen by government officials and politician's filtered away, and let's see weather there will be no upscale into the income to national treasury

Tax to GDP ratio is a meaningless metric in a country where there is basically no relationship between the GDP and government revenue, Tax to revenue ratio is what the government should focus on!

[s]

Truth234:
Why are they celebrating it? Finance minister lacks financial capabilities.

6 percent of $540 billion= $32 billion

7 percent of $345 billion = $24.15 billion

Give us a 6 percent tax to GDP of $540 billion without the current hardship.

[/s]

Sharp liar your 540 billion economy that couldn't pay ordinary salary without borrowing and owed pensioners their due was paradise for only criminals and crooks who had easy access.

tiredoflife:


U are the one whio doesn't know Jack
I am more learned in financial talk than u can ever dream of
Stop showing ur illiteracy and blind support for apc
U dont grow an economy by taxing
U grow by trade with nations
Ur export surpassing your import
Simple economics

Everything u mentioned have to grow hand in hand bro,, if one is lagging behind then there will be a problem..

F117nighthawk:
Nigerians are easily fooled and deceived, what is low revenue generation, the monies already generated what are they used for,which money is NIGERIA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY GENERATE to deserve what the earn and spend as budget? Obasanjo spent 16 billion on NEPA where did the money go,go and recover all the ones stolen by government officials and politician's filtered away, and let's see weather there will be no upscale into the income to national treasury

The revenue we are making currently may be huge to you but not to 200 million pple..if we have grow at the right pace then the tax to GDP ratio have to get to about 15 or 20 Percent..if we don't increase d tax to GDP ratio,,there will be roads,power,security,employment and so on but they will never be enough..

youghs:


Everything u mentioned have to grow hand in hand bro,, if one is lagging behind then there will be a problem..

So u have agreed that tax doesn't grow an economy
That the shit up there is what it is
Bullshit