The Chairman of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, M.B Shehu, has urged Nigerians to endeavor to pay their taxes to boost government revenue so as to improve service delivery.
He stated that less than 40 million Nigerians are presently captured in the tax net and paying taxes and that this is too low for a country that has over 200 million population,” he said.
He commended the idea of a Tax Reform Committee recently set up by President Bola Tinubu. He opined that the committee would do a lot to include economic players from the informal sector into the tax net.
The Chairman of the Commission stated that what the tax reform committee will do is bring a lot of agencies together, including RMAFC, and that RMAFC as a member of that committee, has articulated it’s position and 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 utilized for better services and infrastructure so that every Nigerian can benefit.
He urged the Federal Inland Revenue Service.(FIRS) to collaborate with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to identify certain categories of Nigerians who evade taxes.
The Chairman urged all Nigerians to embrace the idea of willingly paying their taxes so as to boost government’s revenue drive stating that it is very important for every Nigerian to try and pay their taxes because it is from those monies you get services. All the things that people like to tell you about clean environment, good roads, functional infrastructure in other countries, it is the taxes that citizens pay that are utilized for those services. He said that 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 government has to put into road, rail construction, better hospitals, pension, social securities, and better plan to help the needy,” he said.