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A FORMER president of Chartered Institute
of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, and Managing
Partner, Saffron Professional Services, Mrs
Adebimpe Balogun, yesterday, faulted the
move by the Federal Government to
increase Value Added Tax, VAT, to more
than five per cent, saying the present
economic situation in the country does not
support such irrational development.
Balogun who spoke at the eighth Wole
Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series,
themed: “Tax Education, National
Development and the Seminal Role of the
Media”, said that rather than increase taxes
payable by Nigerians as being mulled by the
federal government, government at all levels
should broaden their tax base by bringing
more people in the formal and informal
sectors into the tax net.
Minister of Information, Culture & Tourism
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Labour &
Employment Chris Ngige, Minister of Finance
Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Solid Minerals
Kayode Fayemi and Minister of Agriculture
Audu Ogbeh at the Emergency Federal
Executive Council in Statehouse on 8th April
2016.
A FORMER president of Chartered Institute
of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, and Managing
Partner, Saffron Professional Services, Mrs
Adebimpe Balogun, yesterday, faulted the
move by the Federal Government to
increase Value Added Tax, VAT, to more
than five per cent, saying the present
economic situation in the country does not
support such irrational development.
Balogun who spoke at the eighth Wole
Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series,
themed: “Tax Education, National
Development and the Seminal Role of the
Media”, said that rather than increase taxes
payable by Nigerians as being mulled by the
federal government, government at all levels
should broaden their tax base by bringing
more people in the formal and informal
sectors into the tax net.
Speaking on ‘Falling Crude Prices: How can
effective taxes help limit the hardship’ ,
Balogun, who was the first female president
of CITN charged the state governments to
look inward and develop other products that
could generate additional internally
generated revenue that would help them
cope well with the economic recession
rather than depend solely on the monthly
federal allocations.
Dynamic tax report
She further called on the law makers and
other highly placed government officials who
earn heavy salaries to lead by example by
paying taxes commensurate to what they
earn. While noting that lawmakers were not
exempted, she called for a more sustainable
and dynamic tax reform system. She said:
“Anybody that is thinking of increasing the
VAT rate, is a suicidal attempt for our
economy. Right now, people are suffering
over the inability to pay for many tax
required fees, ranging from the schools,
rents, etc.
“This is not the time to start asking tax
payers for higher rate. But rather it is the
time to expand the tax base and the tax net,
to capture those who are not in the tax net
at the moment. We have a misconception
about who are the informal sector
stakeholders. The informal sector are not
just the traders, or the ‘Balogun, Ojo market
traders', but rather those who do portfolio
contracts and collect the juicy contracts
from the government and are not charged
adequately. The question I have for the
Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, is;
to what extent are they using our
withholding tax system to capture these
people? This is because the federal
government agencies that give out these
contracts are obliged to withhold taxes. And
so, how much of that do we leverage to be
able to attract taxes from those informal
sectors and not collecting much taxes from
employees, though I am not saying that
employees should not be taxed.”
States’ IGR
Balogun, further noted that there is need for
the federal government to harness its local
resources that will shore up development
across the states away from dependency on
the oil revenues allotted them from federal
allocations. While regretting that about 75
per cent of states in the country still depend
on oil revenue, she said: “It is time to
develop other products of our economy. The
natural resources ranges from agriculture,
tourism and entertainment industry. They
should be improved upon as they employ
quite a number of persons. Dubai for
instance survives on tourism. Let us look
inward, as well as other areas where we
can actually improve their productivity and
not just taxes. Also there is need to invest
on exports and creating an attractive
environment, as massive revenues are
generated from export.”
Meanwhile, on states with increased IGR,
she identified Ogun, Anambra and Borno
States, saying that they have done
significantly well in developing other sources
of revenue. For instance, she said that Ogun
State increased its IGR by 49.42 percent
from N17.57 billion in 2014 to N34.65 billion
in 2015, while Anambra achieved 29.32
percent increase from N10.45 billion in 2014
to N14.79 billion in 2015. Borno State on
the other hand, increased its IGR by 21.8
percent from N2.766 billion in 2014 to N3.53
billion in 2015.
On PIB
Balogun who stressed the need for the
passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB,
maintained that much revenues are lost to
tax waivers to big firms in the oil and gas
sector. She said, “The PIB, I’m not sure
how relevant it is at the National Assembly.
But, it was meant to contain the various
incentives in the oil and gas industry.
However, given the fact that these
companies are supposed to have recovered
all their capital by now, the PIB has not
been passed into law. And as such, it is
creating so much problem for that big
industry. Now that we are not getting much
out of it, why are we leaving all the
incentives out these companies?”
Also speaking, Vice President, NECA’s
Network of Entrepreneurial Women, NNEW,
Mrs. Enobong Akpabio, lamented the
imbalance in information disseminated by
the FIRS.
She said, “We are asking of transparency of
information. If you go to the tax offices, you
are going to have disparities in information
from the least to the top management.
Information across board should be followed
at both offices, walls, and website to guide
us on what to do as it is quite frustrating.
“For instance, in Lagos State, most of our
members do not go to tax offices to fill their
tax forms. Rather, we just go to the banks,
pay and pick up our receipt after three
years.
“However, such practice is not obtainable at
the Federal and local government level,’ she
added.
She added that tax reforms should be made
clear on the rights of individual. “For
instance what should happen when
government is owes an individual an
overpaid tax, because It is expected that
they would shut your businesses if you are
owing.
“What determines tax payment and what
should be the right way to collect.
She urged the government to increase tax
incentive and provide adequate
infrastructures for SMEs and other tax
payers to encourage complaince. “Other are
increase tax incentives for local investors by
reducing their tax rate in order to meet up
their establishment on mobility and
sustainability. This is because if more
business do not come into the tax net,
government will not have enough tax to
collect; if companies are shut down due to
burdensome tax invasions, government will
not be able to meet its tax revenue base
and more importantly, the tax offices should
be conducive and rid of touts and other
undesirable elements currently bedevilling
their operations”, she added.
Source: Vanguard ngr
Connect with me on Linkedin
Like this blog Facebook page
BB-Channel: C002F2B28
Follow @instagram
A FORMER president of Chartered Institute
of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, and Managing
Partner, Saffron Professional Services, Mrs
Adebimpe Balogun, yesterday, faulted the
move by the Federal Government to
increase Value Added Tax, VAT, to more
than five per cent, saying the present
economic situation in the country does not
support such irrational development.
Balogun who spoke at the eighth Wole
Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series,
themed: “Tax Education, National
Development and the Seminal Role of the
Media”, said that rather than increase taxes
payable by Nigerians as being mulled by the
federal government, government at all levels
should broaden their tax base by bringing
more people in the formal and informal
sectors into the tax net.
Minister of Information, Culture & Tourism
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Labour &
Employment Chris Ngige, Minister of Finance
Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Solid Minerals
Kayode Fayemi and Minister of Agriculture
Audu Ogbeh at the Emergency Federal
Executive Council in Statehouse on 8th April
2016.
A FORMER president of Chartered Institute
of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, and Managing
Partner, Saffron Professional Services, Mrs
Adebimpe Balogun, yesterday, faulted the
move by the Federal Government to
increase Value Added Tax, VAT, to more
than five per cent, saying the present
economic situation in the country does not
support such irrational development.
Balogun who spoke at the eighth Wole
Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series,
themed: “Tax Education, National
Development and the Seminal Role of the
Media”, said that rather than increase taxes
payable by Nigerians as being mulled by the
federal government, government at all levels
should broaden their tax base by bringing
more people in the formal and informal
sectors into the tax net.
Speaking on ‘Falling Crude Prices: How can
effective taxes help limit the hardship’ ,
Balogun, who was the first female president
of CITN charged the state governments to
look inward and develop other products that
could generate additional internally
generated revenue that would help them
cope well with the economic recession
rather than depend solely on the monthly
federal allocations.
Dynamic tax report
She further called on the law makers and
other highly placed government officials who
earn heavy salaries to lead by example by
paying taxes commensurate to what they
earn. While noting that lawmakers were not
exempted, she called for a more sustainable
and dynamic tax reform system. She said:
“Anybody that is thinking of increasing the
VAT rate, is a suicidal attempt for our
economy. Right now, people are suffering
over the inability to pay for many tax
required fees, ranging from the schools,
rents, etc.
“This is not the time to start asking tax
payers for higher rate. But rather it is the
time to expand the tax base and the tax net,
to capture those who are not in the tax net
at the moment. We have a misconception
about who are the informal sector
stakeholders. The informal sector are not
just the traders, or the ‘Balogun, Ojo market
traders', but rather those who do portfolio
contracts and collect the juicy contracts
from the government and are not charged
adequately. The question I have for the
Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, is;
to what extent are they using our
withholding tax system to capture these
people? This is because the federal
government agencies that give out these
contracts are obliged to withhold taxes. And
so, how much of that do we leverage to be
able to attract taxes from those informal
sectors and not collecting much taxes from
employees, though I am not saying that
employees should not be taxed.”
States’ IGR
Balogun, further noted that there is need for
the federal government to harness its local
resources that will shore up development
across the states away from dependency on
the oil revenues allotted them from federal
allocations. While regretting that about 75
per cent of states in the country still depend
on oil revenue, she said: “It is time to
develop other products of our economy. The
natural resources ranges from agriculture,
tourism and entertainment industry. They
should be improved upon as they employ
quite a number of persons. Dubai for
instance survives on tourism. Let us look
inward, as well as other areas where we
can actually improve their productivity and
not just taxes. Also there is need to invest
on exports and creating an attractive
environment, as massive revenues are
generated from export.”
Meanwhile, on states with increased IGR,
she identified Ogun, Anambra and Borno
States, saying that they have done
significantly well in developing other sources
of revenue. For instance, she said that Ogun
State increased its IGR by 49.42 percent
from N17.57 billion in 2014 to N34.65 billion
in 2015, while Anambra achieved 29.32
percent increase from N10.45 billion in 2014
to N14.79 billion in 2015. Borno State on
the other hand, increased its IGR by 21.8
percent from N2.766 billion in 2014 to N3.53
billion in 2015.
On PIB
Balogun who stressed the need for the
passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB,
maintained that much revenues are lost to
tax waivers to big firms in the oil and gas
sector. She said, “The PIB, I’m not sure
how relevant it is at the National Assembly.
But, it was meant to contain the various
incentives in the oil and gas industry.
However, given the fact that these
companies are supposed to have recovered
all their capital by now, the PIB has not
been passed into law. And as such, it is
creating so much problem for that big
industry. Now that we are not getting much
out of it, why are we leaving all the
incentives out these companies?”
Also speaking, Vice President, NECA’s
Network of Entrepreneurial Women, NNEW,
Mrs. Enobong Akpabio, lamented the
imbalance in information disseminated by
the FIRS.
She said, “We are asking of transparency of
information. If you go to the tax offices, you
are going to have disparities in information
from the least to the top management.
Information across board should be followed
at both offices, walls, and website to guide
us on what to do as it is quite frustrating.
“For instance, in Lagos State, most of our
members do not go to tax offices to fill their
tax forms. Rather, we just go to the banks,
pay and pick up our receipt after three
years.
“However, such practice is not obtainable at
the Federal and local government level,’ she
added.
She added that tax reforms should be made
clear on the rights of individual. “For
instance what should happen when
government is owes an individual an
overpaid tax, because It is expected that
they would shut your businesses if you are
owing.
“What determines tax payment and what
should be the right way to collect.
She urged the government to increase tax
incentive and provide adequate
infrastructures for SMEs and other tax
payers to encourage complaince. “Other are
increase tax incentives for local investors by
reducing their tax rate in order to meet up
their establishment on mobility and
sustainability. This is because if more
business do not come into the tax net,
government will not have enough tax to
collect; if companies are shut down due to
burdensome tax invasions, government will
not be able to meet its tax revenue base
and more importantly, the tax offices should
be conducive and rid of touts and other
undesirable elements currently bedevilling
their operations”, she added.
Source: Vanguard ngr
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