Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, has assured that the administration of President Bola Tinubu would not impose higher tax rates on Nigerians.
Oyedele made this known while responding to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from the public on the X platform about the objectives of the committee and giving progress reports on the work done by the committee as they aim to “meet our deliverables on time according to plan.”
He explained that the main objective of the committee is to reduce the number of taxes and levies imposed on Nigerians. Oyedele said there is no plan to increase taxes, rather the committee would “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.
The objective is to avoid taxing investment, capital, production or poverty. We plan to review and re-enact the major tax laws in a holistic manner thereby limiting the necessity for frequent changes through annual finance acts.”
Responding to questions on how the committee aims to help the federal government meet the 18% Tax-to-GDP ratio within 3 years while not increasing taxes, he said:
“The average tax to GDP ratio for Africa excluding Nigeria is about 18%. This is the basis for the target of 18% 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 added.
