From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Committee has proposed reducing tax collection costs to 1% and introducing daily disbursement of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds.
Taiwo Oyedele, the committee’s Chairman, revealed these suggestions during a public consultation workshop with journalists in Abuja recently.
Oyedele said the proposals are integral to the committee’s efforts to overhaul the country’s tax system.
He stressed the need to update the current system which he said is outdated, noting that under the proposed reform, FAAC will adopt a daily disbursement strategy, different from the traditional monthly allocation meetings.
Additionally, the committee chairman outlined plans to streamline the tax system, reducing the number of taxes to just seven: income tax, value added tax (VAT), property tax, customs duties, excise duty, stamp duties, and special levy.
He said: “Currently, Nigeria has about 60 different taxes and levies officially approved and over 200 unofficial levies across the country, which has increased business costs and adversely impacted the economy.
“The focus is to streamline them into a single digit, improving compliance and ease of tax payment. We believe the system can be configured to credit the accounts of local, state, and federal governments daily.”
He revealed that the planned reform has got the endorsement of key stakeholders, including the Accountant General of the Federation.
Oyedele emphasised the need to address Nigeria’s collection costs, stating that if an agency cannot collect revenue at one percent, it should not be collecting it at all. He noted that the average collection cost in the country is between four percent to over 30 percent.
“We are serious with the one per cent and it should cut across everybody, if you cannot collect revenue with one per cent, then you should not be collecting it at all. That’s why we were saying let government agencies focus on the primary reason they were set up for,” he said.