Taxation has become Nigeria’s only hope of raising revenue for development now that revenue from crude oil sales has almost dried up.
The President, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Adesina Adedayo, stated this at the 25th Annual Tax Conference, in Abuja, yesterday.
According to him, “in the midst of insufficient revenue from crude oil earnings, fluctuating value of the Naira, rising debt and increasing government’s expenditure, taxation has become the only hope of the nation.”
The CITN boss said Nigeria was yet to harness its tax revenue potential, adding: “Nigeria’s Tax to GDP ratio is considered a serious cause of concern when compared to others in Africa.”
Mr. Adedayo stated that crude oil earnings, which used to form the bulk of the revenue accruing into the Federation Account monthly, had simply dried up for more than a year.
“The explanation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) was that it has been spending entire crude oil earnings to subsidise the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol),” he said.
The Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, advocated the deployment of technology to boost tax revenue.
Nami said he and his team have significantly raised tax revenue, yearly, through the deployment of appropriate technology which has been described as tax-payer friendly, thereby reducing the level of default among individual and corporate tax payers.
Chairman of the CITN Conference Committee, Mrs. Ruth Arokoyo, said that the institute was collaborating with the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) given the organisation’s expertise in tackling poverty and addressing sustainable development, across the globe.
She said, “The world’s population is growing at a faster rate than the resources available to provide for the growing population.
“Nigeria’s population is estimated to be about 200 million persons and it is expected to grow to 377 million by 2050.
“This year’s conference is out to discuss how we can use taxation to promote investment, job creation and economic growth that will take care of this projected increase in population.”