The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform, Taiwo Oyedele has stated that the committee is making recommendations to the state and local governments across the country to suspend “nuisance taxes” that don’t add value to the state’s coffers.
He stated this during an interview on Channels Television on the initiatives his committee plans to introduce.
He lamented that most of these taxes especially in the transport of goods from the North to the South and vice versa negatively affected the poor.
According to him, “We are asking states and nuisance taxes that just create problems with very little revenue to show for it. We are already meeting with their Governors, and in some cases, we set up small committees to discuss with their teams. So once the thing is signed, there is no excuse, just implement the next day”
He noted that despite the prevalence of collection of these taxes by representatives of these sub-nationals, the returns do not get to the coffers of the government.
Specifically, he lamented that local governments across the country reported less than N50 billion in revenue collection in 2022 citing a report from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Tax reform bill to be out by March end
On progress made so far by the committee he chairs; he stated that the Emergency Economic Intervention Bill will soon be sent to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for onward approval before forwarding to the National Assembly (NASS).
He stated that by the end of the first quarter, the bill should have been passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President.
What you should know
- Small businesses across Nigeria have been plagued by the problem of multiple taxation either from different agencies of the federal government or similar kinds of taxes from different level of government (federal, state and local government).
- Manufacturers across the country have complained of paying over 60 different taxes from production to market. As stated by The Chief Consultant of B. Adedipe Associates Limited, Nigerian manufacturers pay around 74 taxes.
- Also, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele stated that motorists moving goods from the North of the country to the South are battered with about 73 different taxes along the way.
Many of these payments do not really appear to be taxes, but rather extortions by louts and hoodlums working for certain individuals who are connected to state and Local government heads in the respective location. These levies seem more like settlements for these cronies of state and Local government chief executives, hence it’s unsurprising that only a tiny fraction of the collections seem to make it into government coffers. On the other hand, these practices are really frustrating for small and medium businesses who are already struggling against high costs and harsh economy.