As the debates for and against the proposed Tax Reform Bills continue to heat up, a pro-democracy organisation, under the umbrella of the “Parliamentary Monitoring Group” (PMG), has assured Nigerians that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu meant well for all segments of the country and that the Bills were designed to rescue the country from its economic quagmire.
This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by the National President of the Group, Dr. Adebayor Lion Ogorry.
The Group urged both chambers of the National Assembly to give the Tax Reform Bills a speedy passage, treating the Bills “as a matter of urgent national importance.”
Recall that President Tinubu recently proposed four Bills seeking to reform the taxation system and tax administration in Nigeria.
The Bills — the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill — are currently before the National Assembly as executive Bills.
They stemmed from the recommendations of the Taiwo Oyedele-led Presidential Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform, inaugurated in August 2023 by Tinubu.
The Tajudeen Abbas-led House subsequently organised an interactive hearing involving stakeholders on tax matters on Monday.
According to the statement, “The objectives of the four Bills could be summarised as effectively coordinating federal, state, and local tax authorities, thereby eliminating the overlapping responsibilities, confusion, and inefficiency that have plagued tax administration in Nigeria for years.”
“But hardly had the Bills been presented than they started receiving opposition, with some stakeholders tagging them as anti-North, while the National Executive Council, made up of the 36 state governors and presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima, at its meeting on Thursday, advised President Tinubu to withdraw the Bills.
But reacting to this, the group urged President Tinubu not to be distracted in his quest to lift Nigerians out of reformatory hardships, calling on the National Assembly to consider the four Bills as their own contribution towards revamping the nation’s ailing economy.
According to the group, “We know it’s a very difficult time for every Nigerian, but the people in authority must stand up and be counted as partners in nation-building and economic rejuvenation. The President must not be distracted; he must remain focused in his quest to liberate Nigerians from the economic quagmire. Members of the National Assembly should not listen to any distractions. They should give these Bills accelerated passage. There’s no other matter of urgent national importance like the state of our economy, and anything done to salvage it is not only commendable, it’s godly,” he said.
The statement further alleged that some cabals benefiting from the agelong faulty tax system in Nigeria were responsible for selling the “anti-North” dummy, just to raise opposition against the Bills from the region, knowing fully well that Northerners have the numbers.
But they also forgot to note that for everyone elected into the National Assembly, there must be some levels of experience, either in the public or private sector. They have constituents too, and they interact with them always. Even if some didn’t have Nigeria’s experience of corrupt taxation — maybe because they lived abroad — they might have had their own doses of wrong treatment while preparing for tax clearances to run for their current office.
According to the statement, “What Nigerians need to know is that some of the Bills will transfer tax collection functions from existing agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission to a new National Revenue Service that will collect taxes at the local government, state, and national levels; while the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Joint Tax Board will be renamed and restructured, in line with the mandate of the Act, after presidential assent.”
“You see why some people who have been enjoying the rot going on in these agencies and their collaborators will do everything possible to ensure that the status quo is maintained. But we at the Parliamentary Monitoring Group are currently studying the situation and we shall not hesitate to come out and tell Nigerians the whole truth about the opposition to these Bills. No single Nigerian is greater than all Nigerians. Economic hardship is like rain; when it happens, it doesn’t exclude the roof of your neighbour.”
The PMG said that President Tinubu was on the right track to reposition Nigeria among the economically viable nations and that anyone who stands in his way to achieving this onerous task is the greatest enemy of Nigeria.
The group affirmed that the Presidential Tax Committee recommended the Tax Reform Bills and, if allowed to scale through and be implemented, they have the potential to reposition the economy for better productivity and efficiency, making the operating environment for investment and businesses more conducive.
On the general principles of the Bills, Dr. Ogorry said, “The Bills propose lowering income taxes for low-income earners and completely eliminating them for those in the minimum wage bracket.
It will reduce companies’ income tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent and provide tax relief for loss-making companies. The Bills also seek to eliminate so-called nuisance taxes, streamline tax heads, modernize tax administration, make it simple, adaptive, and ultimately become a growth enabler.”
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