Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has disclosed that in the last seven months, the Federal Government has discovered 363,000 companies operating in Nigeria that have never paid any tax before. These companies were said to have evaded several billions of naira in taxes.
Adeosun, who made this disclosure yesterday at a panel discussion on “Sub-Saharan Africa: Just a Rough Patch” on the side-line of the ongoing 2016 spring meetings of the IMF-World Bank in Washington DC, USA, said getting the tax evaders to fulfil their tax obligations and ensuring unpaid taxes are remitted to treasury is a major priority of the government.
Adeosun stressed that there were enormous revenue realisable from taxation to keep the economy going on a sustainable level without bothering about oil revenue. Realising that taxation is a goldmine yet untapped, she pointed out that the government had been working assiduously to ensure it plugs all loopholes in tax revenue collection.
According to her, “there are still low-hanging fruits in revenue collection. We are using technology, we are using cashless platforms and we are very serious about hitting those targets. Are there risks, yes, are we aware of them, are we trying to mitigate them in our action plan, absolutely yes.”
Lamenting that at the moment, the economy recorded only 5 per cent government revenue to GDP but now targeting 10 per cent, Adeosun noted that the level of compliance in VAT revenue collection was 12 per cent.
Adeosun explained that the federal government’s approach was focused on improving the efficiency of tax collection and broadening the tax base.
“We are using technology to enhance collection, linking up databases from diverse government agencies, auto debits of VAT from corporate entities and government contractors and the rollout of Biometric Verification Number (BVN) across bank account holders. We have also ensured that FIRS staff receive increased incentive pay for delivery on targets,” she said.
Contrary to widespread notion, the minister insisted that Nigeria’s economic future is not gloomy. “We have a framework for our economic future,” she argued.
According to her, “this framework for the future will tackle our problems through three critical areas, namely fiscal discipline, targeted investment, diversification of the Economy.”
In the area of fiscal discipline, she said plugging the leakages must be approached simultaneously by tackling corruption, inefficiency and negligence. This, she noted, the administration had been doing.
Said the minister: “This administration has a strong focus on transparency and an increase in government openness. We will remain solid in our anti-corruption drive and continue in our commitment towards a streamlined administration.
lalasticlala

thesicilian:
Have u given account for the tax all d other companies paid? Our problem right from time has never been revenue collection, it is revenue misappropriation.

cleatoris:

Who do you blame for the culture of misappropriation and institutional recklessness? Your greatest burden is to mention GEJ.

Will you acknowledge an account when rendered before your face?
And how well did your drunken buffon managed and rendered account on his plundering of our public finance?

thesicilian:
...unfair to the Nigerian populace to be asking for more tax when there are obvious loopholes in the management of what has already been paid in...

cleatoris:

Too bad this admin is faultering after close to a year in power but people should stop being too eager to dismiss every of its report and findings in its bid to fix the system, without even understanding the imports of such reports.

Government/change is a process and there are NO perfect govts.

cleatoris:

Too bad this admin is faultering after close to a year in power but people should stop being too eager to dismiss every of its report and findings in its bid to fix the system, without even understanding the imports of such reports.

Government/change is a process and there are NO perfect govts.

PRYCE:
Another Propaganda brewing!...

cleatoris:

By "propaganda" you mean any story that you do not understand nor feel comfortable with, right?

thesicilian:

Honestly I can neither make head nor tail of your ramblings. I just made a statement of fact concerning our financial situation. I am no fan of GEJ vs PMB, APC vs PDP, or any other acronyms out there.
The fact is that it is unfair to the Nigerian populace to be asking for more tax when there are obvious loopholes in the management of what has already been paid in.

Just think of it as fetching water in a basket.

PRYCE:
Nah... The kind this government has the penchant of creating outta NOWHERE!
BTW, been a while since any "dasukigate" arrest has been made...! Whatever happened to that propaganda I wonder!

cleatoris:


And, which do you prefer, a continued arrest and detention of all corrupt persons or to allow the judiciary do its job?

Does your ignorance of further arrest linking to dasukigate negate the fact that defence funds were actually misappropriated under Jonathan's watch?

aresa:



The woman basically highlighted the problem and your concerns about the loopholes and explained what they are doing to address the problem and your concerns, but you ignored all that just to argue and do unnecessary agidi ...


You are not making any sense. Maybe because you don't know how to read and comprehend..