President, International Centre for Tax Research and Development, Mrs. Morenike Babington-Ashaye, has emphasised the need for managers of Nigeria’s commonwealth to account for tax revenues, and ensure improved transparency about how the funds are used as stipulated by the law.

She also charged the National and State Assemblies to ensure that tax revenues are not lumped with others, but must inform Nigerians about what the tax revenue is used for in terms of infrastructure, social services and cash benefits.

Babington-Ashaye made the submission at a lecture entitled: “The political economy of the Nigeria tax reform and its social implications” delivered at the 20th anniversary of the tax club of the University of Lagos, recommending that the State Houses of Assembly should embark on creating laws for the “sharing of our commonwealth between the citizens and the governments as Nigerians have no business with poverty.”

Babington-Ashaye, a former president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), argued that there must be a ratio of the revenue that is spent on infrastructure to ensure there is sufficiency in the services to budget for the people, instead of solely budgeting for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

“There are too many children out of school due to the increase in school fees charged by the Federal States. If the States had budgeted for the people, payment of school fees would not be a problem. The education voucher or grant that needs to be given to pupils and students must be sufficient for the schools to operate efficiently without the government having to budget for the schools. The governments owe the citizens adequate information on what taxpayers’ money is used for, and they must have access to such information,” she said.

Ashaye lamented that centralising the tax system and sharing revenue according to a certain sharing formula is regressive, adding that Nigeria, as a heterogeneous nation, must not be forced into deeper financial turmoil due to the convergence of power to the Federal government.

On the economic aspect of tax reform, she noted that the removal of the multiplicity of taxes is bound to aid growth and effective tax administration. However, she said, the foreign exchange instability, insecurity in many States of the Federation, corruption, economic injustice, high rate of unemployment, deterioration in education standards, and lack of trained workforce to support the needs of the economy are setbacks for the economy.