Tax Compliance Critical To Nigeria’s Economic Growth, Adeosun Tells G24

[caption id="attachment_19218" align="alignnone" width="640"]Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance[/caption]

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun has underlined the role of tax compliance in enabling the country achieve inclusive growth.

Adeosun, during a meeting convened by the G24 Group, told her fellow Finance Ministers from other countries that there is need for Nigeria to start focusing on non-oil revenue growth.

The minister stated that the country has only been able to mobilise relatively low level of non-oil revenue because of its failure to effectively collect tax revenues.

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“Revenue mobilization is critical to the success of Nigeria’s economic reform agenda. We have an unacceptably low level of non-oil revenue, and much of that is driven by a failure to collect tax revenues,” said Adeosun.

“With a tax to GDP ratio of only 6%, one of the lowest levels in the world, we have a lot of work to do if we are going to build a sustainable revenue base that will deliver inclusive growth.

“Our data gathering programme over the last year has now given us the tools we need to be more aggressive at pursuing tax avoiders, both domestically and abroad.

While lauding other member countries of the G24 on their successful tax policies, Adeosun said that government will be focusing on tax in 2017 “through an asset an income declaration scheme to address our low tax revenue collection and ensure improved compliance, a broader tax base and more sustainable revenue. This is fundamental to delivering on our reform plans.”

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“While we focus on raising revenue’s and bringing people into the tax system, we must be equally aggressive in our approach to budget implementation and transparency. Our people must know where their hard-earned tax contributions are being spent and the impact that they are having on national development, and the daily lives of citizens. This will be a core focus for us.”

Adeosun further disclosed that she had met with the Moody’s and Fitch rating agency to “update them on progress towards economic reform objectives, and met with the World Bank Country team to discuss the status of on-going projects in Nigeria, and the pipeline of projects for 2018.

“While the infrastructure that we build to facilitate power and transportation is vital to our economic growth, we are equally focused on addressing the challenges we face to deliver services to our people. Water quality and nutrition are fundamental to quality of life, but also deliver economic benefi“We must do more to improve living standards for our people and so addressing food security, water and nutrition are central to our reform agenda. This isn’t just about economics, these are the basic responsibilities of government, we need to redouble our efforts and show people that their tax revenue can deliver real change in their daily lives,” the minister said.

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