As President Bola Tinubu signs four Tax Reform Bills, which are, Nigeria Tax Bill, Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, Nigeria Revenue Service Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Bill, an economist, Mr Edwin Egesimb, has commended the Federal Government for harmonising and improving taxation in the country.
Mr. Egesimba, who spoke to journalists in a Radio Programme in Port Harcourt, said taxation in every economy is the basic source of income for the nation, which controls the means of production and distribution.
He noted that tax harmonisation was inevitable for the nation, citing a porous and unorganised tax system, which has led to multiple taxation, which impedes both local and foreign investment.
On the exemption of households that earn below N250,000 in the tax system, Mr. Egesimba described it as a welcome development aimed at considering the low-income earners and also encouraging the small-scale enterprises.
“In this context, on the side of the employee, if they are undertaxed, it has increased their disposable income.
On the side of the private sector, SME, being that they are under taxed, they now have more funds at their disposal for investment if we implemented”, he explained.
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Mr. Egesimba, however, stressed that with the exemption of low-income earners, the government would not be at lost for it has other avenues through the comprehensive tax system to raise revenue.
“A good tax system has a way of capturing or bringing everybody into the tax legs because one of the criteria of a good tax system is equity, it must be equitable, and the cost of collecting tax should not be higher than the tax itself. In the case of content creators and all that, they can still be capturing one is not subject to only one tax system. They still pay indirect taxes on goods and services, and they also pay levies.
Government has a way of capturing people,” he noted.
The economist stated that the new taxation system would go a long way to engender competition among states to generate income for development.
