By Angela Atabo
A group, ‘Tax Justice and Governance Platform Nigeria’, has urged that tax incentives must be subjected to legislation and oversight before granting them to companies.
Mr Celestine Odo ,Programme Manager, Governance , Actionaid, who spoke on behalf of the group made the call at a news briefing as part of activities to mark the Tax Justice Week.
Odo said the call became imperative to avoid abusing incentives by giving them to companies at the detriment of raising taxes to develop the nation.
The theme of the Tax Justice Week which holds from Dec. 5 to 9 is ” Tax Expenditure and the Implication for National Development”.
Odo said that the tax conference provided platform for stakeholders to deliberate extensively on fiscal policy and practice reforms.
According to him, it is aimed at striking a delicate balance between maximising revenue opportunities and prioritising expenditure .
Odo said that it also discussed the instrumentality of tax as the most reliable and sustainable fiscal policy tool to meet Nigeria’s development objectives, especially SDGs.
He said:”‘The conference deliberated on a number of fiscal governance issues such as; Innovative strategies and amendment to different legal and policy frameworks regulation and monitoring of tax incentives.
“Inter-agency collaborations and coordination; data computerizations of taxpayers; widening of the tax net, the prevailing debt crisis in the country.
“This is in relation to harmful tax expenditure, increase in revenue collection that is challenged with leakages, avoidance and evasion,among others.
Odo said that the conference identified some challenges that were militating against an effective tax justice regime in Nigeria.
They include: ” Inadequate data from government sources; lack of strong political will on the implementation and adherence to the provisions of the fiscal responsibility Act 2007.
“Others are poor collaborations and coordination among government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to report on tax expenditures etc.”
Ms Uzoma Uzor ,Senior Programme Coordinator,Christian Aid ,who also spoke u behalf of the group said following the above issues, some recommendations were made.
Uzor said the group urged that there should be tax expenditures reports with the annual budgets.
She said: “There is need to strengthen the knowledge base of workers within the relevant MDAs
“To set up a dedicated tax expenditure monitoring and control unit by the ministry of finance as proposed.
“There is need for established annual milestones on tax expenditure implementation.
“There is need for periodic assessment of tax expenditure milestones and impact on the economy.
“To deepen public and private dialogue on the reforms of tax expenditures to find lasting solutions to the challenges.”
Uzor said that there would also be research on new ways of blocking leakages in the revenue generation of Nigeria, especially on adopting technology to monitor.
She added: “Coordination of tax administrators and stakeholders to streamline their activities so as to curb duplication of services.
“MDAs to generate and document evidence-based data with current and live figures, accessible to all.
“”The principles of transparency and accountability should be the guiding principle in the administration of tax expenditure “.