Tax Reform Bills to drive revenue, investments, says Kalu

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu has said that the four tax reform bills currently before the National Assembly will help drive revenue generation, improve the nation’s revenue profile and support investments both locally and internationally.
Kalu who spoke at a meeting on UK -Nigeria Strategic Dialogue with the Deputy Leader, House of Lords and United Kingdom Minister of African Affairs, Rt. Hon. Lord Collins of Highbury in London said existing tax laws are obsolete and needed to be tweaked and streamlined in line with the global best practices and standards.
The National Assembly is currently considering a couple of bills aimed at reforming the fiscal climate for which the federal government is engaging the stakeholders to get their input.
The bills included the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill.
While saying that Nigeria is the right destination for investments called on the UK business and the international community as a whole to increase their investment ratio in the country.
He said: “Our tax laws have been obsolete. So, what we are trying to do now is to streamline them in line with global best practices.
“The aim is to drive revenue and also support some of the investors who have irregular tax laws affecting their revenue, streamlining them to know what they are paying for.
Not multiple taxation on the same issues.”
Kalu also explained some of the policies of the President Tinubu administration especially in economic reforms including the removal of fuel subsidy, the intervention in the foreign exchange market, new regional development commissions, tax reforms, student loan, credit scheme and efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy from dependence on fossil fuels, climate change concerns.
He said the Nigerian parliament was in full support of the reform programmes of the government.
Speaking on the legislative agenda of the 10th House of Representatives, the Deputy Speaker said that the Parliament has prioritized national security, law reforms, economic growth and development, social sector reforms and development, inclusion and open parliament, foreign policy, climate change and environmental sustainability for improvement.
Kalu who is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review added that certain key areas of reform has also been outlined in the Constitution review process, including increased women participation in politics with creation of special seats to increase the number of women in Nigeria’s National and State Houses of Assembly.

The reform areas being considered for constitutional review he said also include local government reforms to improve the autonomy of local government councils and their ability to deliver on development; state policing to address localized security challenges in Nigeria; improved human rights to strengthen Nigeria’s compliance with international human rights standards by empowering relevant Committees of the House to exercise more oversight of the Police and our security services; supporting reforms to improve the judiciary and enable them to perform better.
Others are constitutional and electoral reforms through modernization of the electoral framework to ensue free, fair, and transparent elections, constitutional amendments to address systemic inefficiencies and promote good governance and pursuing more engagement with the civil society and stakeholders to build consensus on critical reform issues.
Deputy Speaker expressed gratitude to the UK government and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for support to the Nigerian parliament for relevant institutional development programs, training and consultative sessions to better equip the legislators.
He requested for expanded support on capacity building, expansion of public engagement mechanisms to strengthen transparency and accountability, security collaboration, human rights advocacy, support for electoral reforms to provide expertise and resources to enhance Nigeria’s electoral processes and ensure credible elections and parliamentary exchanges for Nigerian parliamentarians with the UK parliament.
Deputy Speaker also said the strategic partnership between both countries will ensure continued growth and jobs creation, enhanced national security, migration, justice and home affairs, technology, automobile manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and food security.
“UK could do more with Nigeria knowing our history with the UK. Increase the frequency of trade missions to Nigeria like other nations because various opportunities are there beyond oil and gas; Green metals, others,” he said.
Speaking on ongoing efforts to ensure peace in the South East, Kalu told his hosts of his intervention in the security circles especially in the South East to arrest the escalating insecurity situation.
He said that the security situation in Nigeria required various interventions to resolve it, saying “I adopted the non-kinetic model in the south east Nigeria where civil war left marks that birthed conflicts and agitations which the barrels of gun over the years in form of military intervention failed to heal. Peace In South East Project- PISE-P became the new platforms for intervention.
“I think your approach is a correct one. The focus on peace, progress, is key. What you’re advocating is absolutely right”, Kalu said that the intervention was necessary to help to restore peace in the South East.”
He said the Leader of the detained Indigenous People’s of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has also subscribed to peace, adding that frantic efforts are being made to release him from detention.
“In order to achieve the peace we are looking for in that south eastern region, we have to bring Nnamdi Kanu out of incarceration because a lot of criminals are leveraging his incarceration as a reason to commit various henious crimes and we cannot continue to allow that.
“While he is in court, what some of us have done has been to look for a political approach towards the resolution of the problem by appealing to Mr. President because you can’t coarse the President, you can’t force him. We want to use that approach to achieve peace in that area and the President that we have is a listening President. He is not averse to it.
“He’s opening up lines for conversations. And we are doing the conversation and he is watching and getting advice on how to go about it. I am actually one of those who approached him for his release. I am from the region and I know what that would do for my region.
“I have visited him. And I asked him do you still want to continue with the agitations. That was before the President signed into the South East Development Commission (SEDC) and he, if the President signs it, it means he’s favorably disposed to rebuilding the South East that went through war and that’s the Biafra I am for.
“The Biafra I am looking for is good roads, hospitals, schools for our people. That’s it. The Biafra I am looking for is not to be President or take a State. It’s for that place to be rebuilt.
“Now that the President has signed it, if he comes out, he will join my peace advocacy which is Peace In South East Project (PISE-P), that he will be a Peace Ambassador, project peace and all those who are using his name to name to commit crime because there will be no excuse again,” he said.