El-Rufai tasks tax practitioners on development of high-revenue generating tax practice

 The Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai has enjoined tax practitioners to research into development of an effective taxation practice that would increase government revenue generation from taxes.

Speaking at the opening of the 23rd Annual Tax Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) in Kaduna, El-Rufai urged tax practitioners to contribute their quota to the move toward ensuring effective and efficient tax administration system in Nigeria.

The theme of the Conference was: “Taxation For Economic Recovery: A necessity For Social Engagement and Economic Recovery”.

He decried the low percentage of Nigeria population that were captured in the tax net due to inefficiency and lack of effective tax system, saying that only about 13 per cent of Nigeria population were in the tax net, resulting to low revenue generation and collection.

He explained that increased economic productivity translates into increased government revenues. Increased revenues then allow the government to invest even more in infrastructure and an enabling right, which will further engender private investment, ultimately becoming a virtuous cycle of prosperity for all concerned.

“Only few Nigerians pay  taxes. This not encouraging for any nation that desires to achieve development in the foreseeable future.

“It is agreeable that no nation can achieve development in the absence of adequate revenue to fund its programmes and projects. However, sustainable and adequate revenue mobilization is a function of an effective tax system.

“I would like to call on tax practitioners to continue to uphold the core pillars, principles and ideals of the CITN, to use their skills to simplify the tax compliance process, and to also strive to provide necessary insights and assistance to the Tax Authorities.

“The tax professionals can research to development a more efficient and effective tax system where everyone – young and old would be made to pay taxes as at when due, resulting to increase in the revenues generated from taxation,” El-Rufai said.

Dame Gladys Simplice, the President of CITN, called on the Federal Governments to be more  proactive toward ensuring safety of lives and property in the country.

While commending the government on laudable infrastructural projects ongoing across the country, Simplice said it should realise the dire times we still found ourselves in.

“From the very urgency of providing safe and quality transport system to securing every nook and cranny of our great country.

“Nothing has been more urgent as these needs in our 60years of existence as nation. The government must rise to the occasion and stem the tide of insecurity across our land for without security we cannot have meaningful investments,” Simplice said.

Dr Oluseyi Olarewaju, a seasoned tax expert called for reform and restructuring of the nation’s taxation system to accommodate more taxpayers into the tax net with the focus of increasing revenue generation from taxation.

In his presentation, Olarenwaju identified multiple taxation as a major challenge disrupting the nation’s taxation system.

He said that majority of advanced economies achieved their growth and sustainability through administration and implementation of tax policies.

According to him, increasing tax heads/bases will further compound the problems. However, increasing the taxpayers net is more desirable. This is made easy when taxpayers can see, feel and enjoy some amenities – VALUE.

Olarewaju, therefore, urged the government to be more committed in transparently accounting for revenues from taxation as there was a glaring trust deficit between the citizens and the government; they do not trust that the government would channel tax revenues for its intended purpose.

He said, “We have seen a consistent failure by successive governments in transparently accounting for revenues and executing programmes and projects that impact on the standard of living of the people. Therefore, both players (government and citizens) in the social contract must play their part for our country to achieve economic development”.

He recommended enactment of business boosting policies, transparent tax reporting, civil service restructure, tax orientation, tax diversification, monitoring and evaluation, improved tax payment platform and human resource development as some of the strategic steps to be taken to strengthen the nation’s taxation system.

Dr Titilayo Fowokan, Chairman of the 23rd Annual Tax Conference Committee, said the Conference was one of the initiatives of CITN designed to give adequate opportunities to its members and non-members to navigate, discuss and deliberate on major issues and challenges surrounding the nation’s taxation system with the aim of preferring possible solutions.

Fowokan said that objective for the Conference was to bring together members of the Institute, governments, individuals, academics, practitioners, policymakers and students for an exchange of quality ideas, adding that it also targeted to create an avenue for expansion of understanding of the participants to enable them make reasonable contributions to knowledge in the field of taxation and other related disciplines.

According to her, the theme of the conference is apt, considering that our economy is recovering from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many dignitaries sent their Goodwill messages to the conference  including the Minister of State for Health, Dr Adeleke Mamora; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Ms Zainab Ahmed; the Executive Governor of Plateau State, Hon. Simon Lalong among others.