‘Accountable, effective tax regime key to revenue generation’

Nestoil Group has charged the federal government to be transparent and accountable for every tax generated to achieve an effective tax regime, noting that maximizing revenue generation through efficient taxation is the only way to meet its revenue target for 2021 budget.

The Group Tax Manager, Nestoil Group, Stanley Ezekobe, at a webinar tagged ‘Maximising Government Revenue through Effective Taxation’, said one of the major reasons Nigeria cannot maximize revenue through tax is because the government is not accountable.

He advised that a scale of preference strategy should be deployed where priority would be given to the collection of taxes that have direct impacts on increasing the overall generated revenue like the Value Added Tax (VAT) for more effectiveness, instead of spreading the thin staff strength of the tax collecting agency into other areas that have no direct impact on tax revenue.

Ezekobe said though the issue of multiple taxations is rampant and affects business owners, but stressed that government would do itself a favour if it can identify the type of taxes that have a direct impact on its revenues while also focusing on maximizing its collection.

He said the federal government can expand its tax net if tax payers believe that there is an accruable benefit to them, saying that there should be a motivation for people to pay tax beyond the much-touted developmental reasons adduced by the government.

He said: ‘’For tax revenue to grow, the government must maximise tax collection, maximize the use of what has been collected and in order to be fully effective, they need to be accountable to those whom they have collected the revenue from in the first place’’

According to him, the informal sector that drives the economy has been largely left alone during revenue projection from taxation, with the formal sector getting the most attention. This, he said should be revisited if the government intends to generate enough revenue to offset its expenditures.

He enjoined the government to also identify key local figures in their different communities that will greatly assist it in identifying and collecting taxes on its behalf. This community initiative, he asserted is crucial if more persons in the informal sector is to be captured in the tax net.