Zach Adedeji, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Revenue, claims that the government will deepen the country’s revenue collection system rather than enacting additional taxes in order to harmonise all revenue-collecting institutions and double the country’s total yearly revenue, which is now below N15 trillion.
“Today, we collect less than N15 trillion as the total annual revenue, but our plan between now and the next three years is to double that revenue without increasing taxes and without bringing additional taxes,” said Adedeji, who made this statement on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
“We just want to deepen our collection system, we just want to simplify it into this technology and data and drive the revenue.”
Nigeria has a revenue problem, according to the President’s revenue chief, but the current administration is ready to address the issue through fiscal restraint and the harmonisation of revenue channels using technology to observe all government income-collecting institutions in realtime.
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“One of the issues is numerous taxes, which we’ve found. We’ve identified many generation and collecting agencies, a lack of technology, and other issues as key roadblocks to our capacity to provide what we need,” he stated.
According to Adedeji, the current administration will create and put into effect sensible economic laws and policies that would result in prosperity for all.
The majority of the nation’s tax laws, according to him, are out of date. He added that the recently formed Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, which is chaired by Taiwo Oyedele, will review the current laws on economy and taxation and develop practical laws that are in line with the current state of the economy.
The government’s taxing policy, according to the President’s revenue chief, is to tax affluence and consumption rather than poverty and production.
He expressed sympathy for Nigerians who were suffering due to the withdrawal of the petrol subsidy because it had eliminated the “distortion we have in our economy” and the unification of exchange rates.
Adedeji assured the populace that they will soon begin to grin under the Tinubu administration, saying that the first economic pain and inflation they are currently experiencing are only temporary.
“If you look at our fiscal space, it is being governed by only two laws as of today. We have Finance Management Act of 1958 and Fiscal Responsibility Act,” Adedeji stated.
“The Stamp Duty Law was given to our by the British in 1939 when there was no internet,” he said, noting that the Oyedele-led committee will come up with fresh laws that reflect current economic realities.
