Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, says reforms have become difficult to effect owing to citizens’ lack of trust in the government and its policies.
Speaking on Tuesday at a colloquium held in Abuja to mark
the 50th birthday of Hadiza Bala Usman, Oyedele named trust deficit as one of
the issues hampering the process to reform the country’s tax laws.
“Reforms are hard to get around, and tough reforms are
harder because they involve interest. I think it’s even more complex in Nigeria
for three reasons. Number one is that there is a low trust. The trust in
government and within government is very low,” he said.
“The second reason is that the tax culture in Nigeria is
very weak. A lot of Nigerians have no idea what taxes they are supposed to be
paying, even under the old law, and they haven’t been paying them.
“Suddenly, there is a national awareness, and they just say,
the people have come with taxes all over the place when actually, what the
government is doing is to reduce those taxes they have been paying, and
harmonise them.”
Oyedele said that for reforms to be introduced and
successfully implemented, leaders must deploy courage alongside political will.
“You need that courage to push through, you need the courage
to take risks, because it’s very risky,” he said.
“There is political risk, there is economic risk, there is
reputational risk. You need to see all manner of names they call me now online.
There are even threats, death threats. So you have to have the courage to do
all of that.
“What we have been doing all along, all my adult life with
the tax system, was pain reliever. It hasn’t taken us far. It can’t take us
far. Now we’re doing the surgery. It’s going to come with some pain, but that’s
the only right thing to do.
“Overall, my view is that Nigeria is making progress, the
sort of progress I haven’t seen in my adult life. And if we can stay the course
and see this through, we’ll all be better for it.”
Muhammad Abdullahi, deputy governor, economic policy
directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said reforms often fail because of
an inability to translate vision into durable systems that can withstand
pressure, political cycles, and short-term public anxiety.
Abdullahi praised President Bola Tinubu’s administration for
improving the macroeconomic environment, expressing optimism for complementary
growth in the micro sectors.
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