Presidential Panel Plans Tax Cut

The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, has said that his target is to reduce the number of taxes collected in Nigeria to less than ten.

He said this during the 53rd annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.

Oyedele noted that over 62 taxes were officially being collected at the different levels of government in the country, which was a burden on Nigerian business operators.

He decried the several informal taxes being collected across the country.

Oyedele added that he planned to ensure a reduction in the number of revenue collection agencies to one for each tier of government.

He said, “At the federal level. The list is somewhere close to 16 officially at the state level, 25 Local Government 21, but this is just the beginning of the story. The story is incomplete. Until you are add the over 108 informal taxes collected all over the place, sometimes by non-state actors that have been empowered, either passively or actively by government.

“In fact, we have bicycle tax, and wheelbarrow tasks in Nigeria. I think if you are looking for the definition of wickedness, it will be to find a man who is struggling to make ends meet pushing their wheel borrow in the sun and say, you have not paid your tax.

“What I want and hope to achieve is the reduction of the number taxes to less than 10, yes we want a single digit, and also we want to cut down revenue collection agencies to one for each of tier of government. With this, the federal government have one revenue collection agency, same for state and local government. So that they can focus on their primary mandate of making life easier for citizens.”