Taiwo Oyedele, fiscal policy partner and head of Africa taxation at PwC, chastised the government for taxing poverty in Nigeria.
He urged the government to explore an inclusive economic growth rate that will focus on taxes, reduce the economic burden of SMEs and increase the tax net of non-paying upper middle class institutions, especially MDAs.
Oyedele revealed it to the Nairametrics Economic Outlook Webinar held on Saturday 16th July.
We could end up like Sri Lanka
Responding to a question on why Nigeria’s GDP growth rate has remained below 5%, he said: “GDP growth is less than 2% in ten years, and population growth has remained at 3%. This means that more people are falling into poverty every day. The growth rate is not inclusive.
- He also mentioned that rising inequality must be taken into account, warning that if nothing is done, Nigeria could end up like Sri Lanka.
- He warned that some employed households are spending most of their income on food as the rate of food inflation continues to rise.
- “What we need to do is make the country work for everyone. Nearly 100 million people live in poverty,” Oyedele said, insisting that the government’s social protection policies must have more impact as sharing 5,000 naira with the poorest will not go far.
He said FG needs to focus on:
- Tax policy interventions: He said the FG is basically tax poverty at the current ratewarning that if the poverty line is $2.15 and the average household size is 5 people, that means we are taxing poverty when people cannot feed themselves.
- “If you tax people earning 70,000 naira or less, you are taxing poverty. The top 1% accounts for more than half of government revenue, so government policy should focus on the middle and upper class, not the poor.
- SMEs: He urged the FG to reduce overregulation and stop being a burden by bringing tax coordination as well as coordination and improvement of the exchange rate regime. “There is over-regulation and multiple regulations for small businesses.”
Oyedele also insisted that other means of increasing FG revenue must be more efficient with tax collection for the upper class, citing that tax funds cannot come from the poorest, as the top 5% the wealthiest in a population are generally responsible for most taxes in developed countries.
Tax harmonization – “Taxes must be harmonized; We unofficially have over 200 taxes of which only 10 are doing well. Oyedele also remarked.
MDAs do not pay tax – He urged MDAs to put taxes back on staff and FG to harmonize taxes by reducing tax agencies which should work in tandem with blocking leakages.
“MDAs do not pay withholding tax to the government. You will be surprised to learn that the National Assembly, the Presidency and the EFCC do not pay taxes according to the auditor general’s audit report. »Oyedele
Dayo Obisan on what the government is doing
- Nairametrics earlier reported that Mr. Dayo Obisan, the representative of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director General Lamido Yuguda during the Nairametrics Economic Outlook Webinar, said that focusing on the implementation stage by stage of Nigeria’s national development is one of the keys to economic growth in Nigeria
- Obisan, who is the Executive Commissioner (Operations) at the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria, said Nigeria’s National Development Plan already has six goals that touch on different sectors.
- Mr. Obisan, who said that productivity would reduce poverty, noted that in Nigeria, many policies have been put in place, but the problem is usually the implementation of these policies.