Economic experts have advised the Federal Government (FG) to take advantage of its tax policy to boost the country’s national development.
The experts gave this suggestion at the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria’s (CITN) 40th-anniversary Public Lecture in Abuja, where they expressed the conviction that tax remains a vital fiscal instrument for the nation’s development.
While they urged the government to consider tax policy as an instrument of socio-economic change that is productive in regulating the tax system and providing a basis for tax legislation and administration, the experts charged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government on strategic utilisation of the tax policy to enable the actualisation of the National Development Plan 2021-2025.
“Taxation serves as general public policy instruments, promoter of economic growth and instrument to promote social change,” the Chairman, Tax Appeal Tribunal, Lagos Panel 3, Prof. Abdulmumini Ahmed, was quoted as saying, as he justified the input of taxation to nation’s development.
What you should know
BizWatch Nigeria understands that the Nigerian government pursues national development by trying to achieve macroeconomic objectives through its functions of allocation of resources, distribution of income, and stabilisation of the economy.
Amongst other things, the stabilisation responsibility of government finance involves the use of both fiscal policy and monetary policy to achieve the desired macroeconomic objectives.
For fiscal policy, taxation is the basic instrument in pursuing national development. This is because it provides the required funding for infrastructures and the running of the government.
Meanwhile, in a statement recently cited by this publication, the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) said the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) lost N5.8 billion to tax evasion by Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs).
According to the AGF office, the House of Representatives and Senate also contributed to the accrued loss of tax revenue in 2019.
