The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, says the federal government
will soon start collecting luxury taxes.
Addressing journalists at the annual meetings
of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC on
Sunday, Adeosun said people with higher income must bear a greater part of the
tax burden.
“The luxury tax planned by the federal government
is being finalised now because it cuts across the ECOWAS. There is a legal
process you must go through, including the customs union to actually vary the
specific taxes,” she said.
“The problem we have in the country is not
just that the system needs to be overhauled, it is also that people are not
complying and this is because there is no consequence. We have just started
with Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) as a measure to
tackle that and the response is impressive.
“In any tax system, the burden must be borne
by anybody whose income allows to bear it, so those with higher income should
by definition, bear a greater part of the burden.”
She disclosed that some rich people had
approached her to speak to their governors about taxes payable to state
governments.
“In fact, people have started declaring and I
have had a number of approaches from high net worth people asking me to speak
on their behalf to state governors to allow them time to comply because their
personal taxes are payable to state governments,” she said.
“I have encouraged every governor that
everyone who comes to declare should be given enough time to pay up. This is
because the amount of tax that they would have to pay is big.
“Whether taxing the rich will increase public
revenue or not, it is all about public revenue to which they are obligated for
public services.
“The problem currently is that those at the
lower level are the ones paying. If the man in the traffic control, with little
income will pay at source, why should we not pursue the billionaire or the
trillionaire to pay out of the income? We need to change the mindset in the
country with regards to tax system.”
In August, Adeosun announced that the federal
government had signed a policy to tax first class and business class air
tickets alongside other luxury goods.
Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, had
earlier said making the rich pay more taxes will not solve the problem of
inequality in the world and advised countries to reduce the gender gap between
men and women.
However, Godwin Emefiele, governor of Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said women have not been approaching the bank to access
the funds set aside for small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
“Of course I am a man, but I need to say there
is a need to support women. In our micro, small and medium enterprises funds
(MSMEs) of N220 billion, 60% is reserved for women but we are not even seeing
the women coming,” he said
Adeosun also called for the creation of more
opportunities for women saying “investing in women is the best investment any
country can make”.
Source: thecable
No comments: