President Bola Tinubu approved the formation of a Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms on Friday.
According to The Punch, the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, was named committee chairman.
The news comes just 24 hours after the President signed four Executive Orders delaying the 5% excise tax on telecommunications services and the rise of excise charges on locally built vehicles.
A statement signed on Friday by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communication, and Strategy, Dele Alake, disclosed that the committee “will comprise experts from both the private and public sectors and have responsibility for the various aspects of tax law reform, fiscal policy design and coordination, tax harmonization, and revenue administration.”
According to the statement, the body’s principal goal is to improve revenue collection efficiency and ensure transparent reporting.
It will also encourage the efficient use of tax and other revenues in order to raise residents’ tax morale, build a healthy tax culture, and encourage voluntary compliance.
Alake referenced prior remarks by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Revenue, Mr Zaccheus Adedeji, who explained the need of a sound fiscal policy environment and an effective taxation system for the operation of the government and the economy.
“Nigeria ranks very low on the global ease of paying taxes,” says Adedeji, “while the country’s Tax to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world.”
“While some incremental progress has been recorded over the years, the outcome has not been transformative enough to change the narrative,” he explained.”
Adedeji listed the major issues in Nigeria’s tax system, which include many taxes and revenue collection agencies, a fragmented and complex tax system, low tax morale, a high rate of tax evasion, a high cost of revenue management, and a lack of coordination between fiscal and economic policies, and poor accountability in the utilization of tax revenue.
Adedeji stated that the administration’s goal is to restructure the tax system to support sustainable development and attain a minimum tax-to-GDP ratio of 18% within three years without strangling investment or economic growth.
Oyedele, the committee’s chairman, is the Thematic Lead for the Fiscal Policy & Planning Commission and the Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group’s West Africa Debt Management Roundtable.
He also chairs the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Faculty Board on Taxation and Fiscal Policy Faculty Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and is a member of the Nigerian Taxation Standards Board.
Oyedele is also a member of Nigeria’s Ministerial Committee for the Implementation of the National Tax Policy. He is a member of the Global Tax Forum and previously served on the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ Global Governing Council.
