FG working on reducing taxes from 52 to 10— Presidential aide
The Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on revenue, Zacch Adedeji, has disclosed that the Federal Government is currently engaged in efforts to decrease the total number of taxes levied in the nation to 10.
According to The PUNCH, Adedeji made this statement on Saturday at the second edition of the lecture series hosted by the 1988 class of the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Lagos.
The lecture focuses on the current state of revenue generation in Nigeria, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that exist.
The presidential aide, a former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Sugar Development Council, highlighted the presence of 52 taxes currently being collected in the country, emphasising the negative impact on the efficiency of tax collection.
He said, “We collect 52 taxes as a nation. I have not seen any country in the world where they collect that much tax across the different levels of government.
“We want to enhance revenue generation without putting too much burden on citizens or stifling our economy. We will do this by collapsing and harmonising taxes to enhance revenue without introducing new taxes.”
Adedeji added, “After harmonising the taxes, we will only have ten taxes that will be universal, one of which will be on betting.”
The special assistant to Tinubu added that the FG has not benefited from regulatory organisations’ efforts to collect money.
According to him, regulatory entities would concentrate on their tasks within the Tinubu administration’s policy priorities, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service—soon to be renamed the Nigeria Revenue Service—will be in charge of collecting money.
“We will harmonise taxes, unify revenue agencies, and let regulators focus on regulation. If you cannot count your money, you cannot allocate and if you can’t allocate, you can’t manage. This is something we are making a priority,” he added.
