Bello
The Nigerian government plans to review its tax rate for affluent persons to a level it considers fair, to protect the poor and ultimately expand the revenue of the country.
The plan is also aimed at arresting commonplace evasion in an economy with one of the world’s lowest tax collections in proportion to GDP.
The idea is that the fiscal reforms will ease the path for Africa’s biggest economy to tax-to-GDP ratio to 18 per cent by 2026, from its present 10.9 per cent, Bloomberg reported Thursday, quoting Taiwo Oyedele, who heads the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, is in a drive to expand much-needed revenue after perennial oil theft denied the country the windfalls from the current oil boom, forcing the government to shift away from its fixation on the commodity.
At 96.3 per cent, its debt-to-revenue ratio leaves President Bola Tinubu pretty little room to borrow to finance its spending plan, stoking the urgency to revamp the tax structure to bolster earnings.
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