Washington, April 20, 2024 – Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, says about 90 percent of Nigeria’s tax revenue is from just nine tax heads.
He said this on Friday in Washington at the ongoing Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington DC.
Edun said only nine of 80 different taxes and levies in Nigeria generated 90 percent of the revenue contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said the government’s objective was to reduce the multitude of taxes and properly bill individuals increase revenue collection.
“It would appear as if some people are not paying their taxes. Our strategy is to increase the tax revenue without increasing the rate of taxes. We want to deploy technology to make tax collection more efficient.
“Our analysis has shown that 90% of tax revenue comes from nine tax heads while we have over 80 taxes from federal through states to local councils.
“If we eliminate the large number of these taxes and concentrate on the nine that yield the current 90% revenue and deploy technology, there will be more efficiency and we will be able to double our tax revenue in about three years,” he said.
The minister said that the Federal Government was committed to tackling the issues of excess liquidity by temporarily suspending the use of ways and means from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He said the action was designed to promote synergy between fiscal and monetary authorities to alleviate inflationary pressures and stabilise the currency exchange rate.
“The two authorities are working hand in hand to bring down inflation and pressure on price stability and stabilising the exchange rate with the target of bringing down interest rates so that investors can borrow at a more affordable rate with a view to getting the economy going the right direction again.
“We need to borrow less and focus more on domestic resource mobilization. We want long-term resources to avoid repayment and refinancing pressures,” he said. (GBN)
