FG To Go After Entrepreneurs, Others Over Tax Evasion – Adeosun

There may be no hiding place soon for entrepreneurs and other wealthy Nigerians who evade payment of tax in the country as the federal government has threatened to come up with a new tax regime that will stop them from sabotaging the country’s economy.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed this noted that many Nigerian entrepreneurs have developed the habit of not paying tax.

She spoke in Lagos during a colloquium to mark the 65th birthday anniversary of national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Dropping the hint that a new tax regime was in the offing, Adeosun said one of the strategies the current administration of President Muhammdu Buhari intends to use in boosting the country’s revenue is tax mobilization.

She said, “It is a pity that Nigeria has one of the lowest tax regime ratio globally at six per cent.  The only country that is lower than us is Oman. We have so many wealthy entrepreneurs who have managed to develop the habit of not paying tax. We need to correct that”.

The minister pointed out that when the administration of Tinubu introduced tax regime in Lagos, he became unpopular, adding however that “when we see the infrastructure, I don’t think anyone will blame him for his action.

“I take this opportunity to reach out to the millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires that you will hear from me soon. It is a shame that we are one of the largest owners of crude oil, but we cannot enjoy the revenue from it. Oil has proven that it would be an unreliable source of revenue. The price is unstable”.

She said economic challenge confronting the country required multiple strings of revenue since the oil has proved that it would be an unreliable source of revenue.

Assuring that the country will soon be out of economic recession, Adeosun revealed that the federal government was already copying the Lagos template to revive the economy.

To make the economy productive, she said the federal government recently released N1trillion for capital expenditure, adding that measures were being taken to bring about multiple streams of revenue.

“The economic template we copied from you (Lagos) is now being implemented for economic recovery of the country and we are not ashamed to say it. The impact of that template is that many of the states are now copying it, especially in the area of IGR”, the minister stated.

(Financial Watch)