As the debates for and against the proposed Tax Reform Bills continue to heat, a pro-democracy organisation known as 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 an economic quagmire.
In a statement on Monday, Dr Adebayor Lion Ogorry, President of PMG, called on both chambers of the National Assembly to speed up the passage of the Tax Reform Bills, as it is of urgent national importance.
President Tinubu recently proposed four Bills to reform Nigeria’s taxation system and tax administration.
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, which Tinubu inaugurated in August 2023.
On Monday, the Tajudeen Abbas-led House subsequently organised an interactive hearing involving stakeholders on tax matters.
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.
However, the Bills were hardly presented when they started receiving opposition, with some stakeholders tagging them as anti-north. At its meeting on Thursday, the National Executive Council, composed of the 36 state Governors and presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima, advised President Tinubu to withdraw the Bills.
However, on Sunday, Dr Ogorry urged President Tinubu to focus on his quest to lift Nigerians out of reformatory hardships, calling on the National Assembly to consider the four Bills as their contribution towards revamping the nation’s ailing economy.
“We know it’s a tough 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 the Northerners have the numbers. However, they also needed to remember that everyone elected to the National Assembly must have some experience in the public or private sector. They have constituents, too, and they constantly interact with them. Even if some didn’t have Nigeria’s experience of corrupt taxation, maybe because they lived abroad, they might have had their dosages of wrong treatments while preparing for tax clearances to run for their current office.
“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 local government, state, and national levels; while 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 are enjoying the rots in these agencies, and their collaborators will do everything possible to maintain that status. However, 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 neighbours”.
The PMG said that President Tinubu was on the right track to reposition Nigeria among economically viable nations, and anyone who stood in his way of achieving this arduous task was Nigeria’s greatest enemy.
The group affirmed that the Presidential Tax Committee recommended the Tax Reform Bills. If allowed to scale through and implemented, they would tend to reposition the economy for better productivity and efficiency and make 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 ultimately eliminating them for those in the minimum wage bracket.
“It will reduce companies’ income tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent and give tax relief for loss-making companies. The bills also seek to eliminate so-called nuisance taxes, streamline tax heads, make tax administration modern, simple, adaptive, and become a growth enabler”.
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