Experts urge tax reform, transparency

Say $1 billion target depends on enabling environment
Experts have said that Nigeria’s quest to generate estimated $1 billion in tax revenue yearly depends on ability to create a national prosperity and enabling business environment in the country.

They also canvassed reform of the country’s tax law to accommodate the principle of derivation.

Associate Director at Deloitte, Patrick Nzeh, at a workshop on voluntary assets and income declaration scheme organised by the company for corporate organisations and tax practitioners in Port Harcourt yesterday, said government needed to create a national prosperity that would enable corporate entities and individuals to pay their taxes.

Nzeh said there should be transparency in accounting for tax revenue to encourage tax-payers to continue to be compliant.

In a similar vein, Prof. Jack Osimiri of the Faculty of Law, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, has canvassed for a tax reform with emphasis on indirect taxation, which according to him, is easier to enforce.

Osirimi said the principle of derivation would compel the Federal Government to spend at least 25 per cent of tax revenue in any state where the money is generated.

He, however, condemned tax officers who often seal off business premises to enforce tax compliance, saying that such action was illegal and should be discouraged.