Less than 40 million Nigerians are captured paying their taxes, saying Muhammad Shehu, the Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
He said this while urging the citizens to endeavour to pay their taxes to boost government revenue and improve service delivery.
“That is too low for a country that has more than 200 million populations,” he said.
Shehu made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.
Shehu also disclosed that the commission developed software to enhance transparency in revenue generation and sharing amongst the three tiers of government.
He lauded the idea of a Tax Reform Committee recently set up by President Bola Tinubu.
He said that the committee would do a lot to include economic players from the informal sector in the tax net.
“There is all this debate about the informal economy. What this tax reform committee will do is bring a lot of agencies together, including RMAFC. We are members of that committee. We have articulated our position, and we will communicate what we believe can add value to the discussion.
“At the end of it all, we will have a better society where more people are paying taxes and the money will be utilised for better services and infrastructure so that every Nigerian can benefit,” he said.
He urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service to collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service to identify certain categories of Nigerians who evade taxes.
“There are some taxes that the government is not getting from Nigerians. I believe the FIRS will look at all those things and then collaborate with the NCS for better efficiency.
“I think it is very important for every Nigerian to try and pay their taxes because it is from those monies that you get services.
“All the things that people like to tell you about clean environments, good roads, and functional infrastructure in other countries—it is the taxes that citizens pay that are utilised for those services.
“People should learn to pay electricity bills; they should pay their water bills; they should pay just like you pay for telephone recharge cards.
“The more you pay your taxes, the more money the government has to put into road and rail construction, better hospitals, pensions, social security, and a better plan to help the needy,” he said.
(NAN).
