Is thisday reporter Nnamdi Duru telling a lie--The Economist, i have search for this story on the--The Economist website and check other information. I think Nnamdi Duru made up this story, this may be a lie,












Nigeria Has Stronger Tax System –The Economist
By Nnamdi Duru,

The London-Based news magazine, The Economst has given a positive verdict on Nigerian’s tax system, affirming the system is now stronger than ever before.
“A stronger tax system has emerged in Nigeria in the last few years,” the magazine stated, attributing the changes in the economy to the growth in the non-oil sector of which a strong tax system is an important component.
The Economist’s assessment of the country’s tax regime is a departure from a recent submission made by the Institute of Spam and Internet Public Policy (ISIPP), which indicated visible lapses in the country’s tax laws and criminal penal code that encourage the activities of scammers and other financial criminals.
The president of ISIPP, Anne Mitchell, Esq., in a publication last month titled “Why Scammers Love Nigeria - the Benefits of Living in Nigeria and the Nigerian 419 Scam”, opined that scammers and other financial criminals see Nigeria as a haven as a result of visible lapses in the country’s tax laws and criminal penal code.
She observed that with these lapses, it is easier for anybody to hide part of their income to evade taxes and that with rising cases of multiple taxations and a lax penal system, Nigeria is seen as one of the ideal places to run advanced fee scams.
But The Economist in its November 7, 2007 edition published the outcome of a research conducted by its Economist Intelligence Unit Briefing titled “Not Just Oil”, indicated progress has been made in the area of structural reform resulting in greater government transparency over oil revenues, a stronger tax system and the implementation of a range of measures to reduce obstacles to doing business while admitting that some institutional weaknesses still remain.
It also acknowledged the reforms in the Federal Inland Revenue Service, (FIRS) under the leadership of Ms. Ifueko Omoigui resulting in a streamlined office structure, professional workforce, automation of its collection and elimination of incidences of trapped funds as well as administrative and financial autonomy for the service.
Over 4,500 staff of the service have been trained and retrained to combat tax evasion and avoidance, particularly by multinational corporations, the magazine added.
“Nigeria is the somewhat surprising source of evidence that there is more to Africa’s economic resurgence than just commodity prices. During the country’s two-year reform programme under a Policy Support Instrument (PSI) agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), non-oil growth averaged 8.5 percent annually well above the targeted 5.1 percent while inflation in 2007 is projected at 6 percent, as against a programme target of 6.2 percent.
“Foreign debt fell steeply from more than US$30bn in 2005 to US$3.3bn in 2007 (compared with a target of US$4.7 billion), reflecting substantial debt relief as well as the accelerated repayment of debt by the Nigerian authorities themselves. Government capital spending more than doubled over the period and US$1bn of debt relief was allocated to a Virtual Poverty Fund in both 2006 and 2007,” the report stated.
“However, some targets were missed. Oil production, set to average 2.15 million barrels per day in 2007 is behind the target of 2.58 million barrel per day and the build-up of foreign reserves to US$47.7 billion is a long way short of the PSI objective of US$68.8 billion, partly reflecting debt repayments,” it added.
The Economist also affirmed the emergence of a stronger tax system in the country stating that “while there was progress in structural reform - in the form of greater government transparency over oil revenues, a stronger tax system and the implementation of a range of measures to reduce obstacles to doing business, the IMF admits that institutional weakness remains and that the civil service is only in the early stages of reform”.
“Furthermore, growth continues to be constrained by under-performance in the oil sector. Abuja and IMF are projecting a fall in oil GDP in 2007, partly offset by strong non-oil growth, but strong rebounds in both oil and non-oil growth in 2009-10 are expected,” the report concluded.