81% of Nigerians
81% of Nigerians do not pay Taxes
Tax Moral Low in Nigeria
Penalties for evasion not punitive enough
More than 81% of taxable adults and businesses in Nigeria do not
pay their income taxes due to low tax moral in the country, the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has learnt.
This was disclosed in a presentation made by Research Director
of the Fiscal Policy Roundtable of the Nigeria Economic Summit
Group, NESG, Mr. Tayo Oyedele, this morning (Wednesday) at the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat in Abuja.
Oyedele, who was in the company of the Chairman of the Fiscal
Policy Roundtable, FPR, Dr Sarah Alade had paid a courtesy call on
the Director General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr. Asishana
Bayo Okauru, to solicit an opportunity to expose this sour
narrative to the nation’s governors and seek their involvement to
correct the ills that are denying the country of its collectible
revenues.
The Director of Research who condemned the seeming national
apathy of Nigerians on payment of taxes said that figures available
to him reveal that there are 20 million registered taxpayers in the
country, scoffing at the figure which seems paltry compared to the
presumed nation’s population of nearly 200 million people.
While explaining the concept and reasons adduced to the nation’s
low tax moral, the NESG buff disclosed however, that nearly 85% of
those who deem it unnecessary to pay taxes to the government
willingly pay same to “non-government actors.”
This ironic twist, the NESG attributed to the distrust that
pervades the environment when it comes to paying taxes, dues and
levies to a government that does not command the public’ trust.
Of the tiers of government on whose shoulders tax collection is
reposed, the research showed that Local Governments and their
officials are among the most untrustworthy, followed by state
governments and then the tax officials themselves.
“Many believe that it is unwise to pay taxes to entities that do
not translate taxes to services or to officials who diverted same
to personal use,” Oyedele divulged, while insisting that there were
nonetheless 17% of the population who see the payment of taxes as a
civic duty which all must perform.
Maintaining that there were 354 taxes in Nigeria, which create
duplicity of taxes and favoritism on where to audit and where not
to audit, not minding the unprofessional conduct of tax collectors,
who sometimes threaten the public, NESG also regretted that the
penalties for non-payment of taxes in Nigeria were not only
unhurtful and not punitive enough, but that the processes of
penalizing reluctant taxpayers were selective.
The NESG therefore recommended that it would have been better if
the country minimized the tax regimes of the country from 354 to
only 10, abrogating such meaningless taxes as the ozone layer tax
which the population can hardly fathom.
According to the research as narrated by the NESG, personal
income taxpayers would have been happier to pay their taxes if
education, health and infrastructural provision were raised to
global standards, while corporate taxpayers would love to see
electricity, roads and security improved.
The Director General of the NGF on his part viewed the situation
as a looming calamity which must be addressed forthwith, while
thanking the NESG group for bringing this horrendous narrative to
the knowledge of the Forum.
Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo
Head, Media and Public Affairs
Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat