The Tax Justice and Governance Platform, (TJGP) Nigeria has called on the federal government pay serious attention to widening the tax net rather than increasing the rate which will only place more burden on the few that complies already and still exempt the majority that do not pay taxes.
The group of civil society organizations advocating for the promotion of a progressive, fair and transparent system in which domestic resources are effectively mobilized through an efficient tax system, utilized for people oriented development and provision of essential services that benefit majority of citizens in a press statement made available to journalists also called on the federal government to provide additional information and details on the proposed measures for the purposes of public debate and multi-stakeholder input
They said they have followed with keen interest, the trend around the Federal Government’s effort to improve revenue mobilization to fund development in Nigeria.
“We expect empirical projections and evidence based expected outputs that indicate that the tax yield from some of the measures would outweigh any disadvantage and potential negative impact and that the majority of Nigerians will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the proposed measures.”
Reducing the tax incentives granted to multinationals which is not even much of a contributor to their existence in the Nigerian business environment.
“We call on the Federal Ministry of Finance to ensure that its increase in the revenue targets to the Federal Inland Revenue Services is based on empirical computations and is not emotional or arbitrary projections, neither should it hinge on speculation and should ensure that the FIRS is not compelled to impose hardships on hapless Nigerians in a bid to generate taxes to meet unrealistic targets.
“The Platform calls on the Federal Government to improve market information and transparency by implementing the National Tax Policy, promoting the commitment to progressive taxation and taking measures to improve financial transparency while cooperating with regional and international bodies to address the issues of illicit financial flows.
