By Adeyemi Adeleye
A former presidential spokesman Dr Doyin Okupe says opponents of the proposed Tax Reform Bills are enemies of the country, saying the bills are pro-poor and pro-development.
Okupe, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said that no right thinking person would stand against the reforms meant to protect the poor and tackle corruption.
“Any right-thinking human being who has had the opportunity in these last two months or so to listen and to read what the tax reforms are all about and goes against it, is an enemy of the country.
“We are saying that majority of poor people should not pay tax, how can anybody be against that?
“These reform bills are saying that companies that are not making money cannot be taxed arbitrarily. Their taxation will be based on revenue that they have generated and profit that made, not on turnover.
“And if your turnover is below 50 million, you are exempted, should anyone oppose this?
“If these tax bills can be passed, they will also help reduce corruption ,” Okupe, former Director- General of Mr Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organisation, said.
On the North opposition to the Tax Reform Bills before the National Assembly, Okupe said that the North had no justifiable reason to oppose the bills.
He said that Nigeria’s democracy had been based on oil and not on taxation, which he said, was not sustainable, hence the need for a reform.
“Go and look at all countries in the world, the major source of revenue for government is taxation, but we don’t consider tax as an issue because we just take the oil, and then look at what are we going to get in the next 12 months for budget,” he said.
He said that the First Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) hadachieved a lot in the revenue generation in the last one year.
“Our tax to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world, and here is a country that requires immense amount of money and revenue for development.
“Population is high, land mass is big and huge. Therefore, we need money,and this tax reform is saying, ‘yes, we need money, but we cannot tax people who are already strangulated. Leave those ones alone.
“There are young people who are making money, who go to clubs and spend N3million, N4 million and so on in a night. Those are the people that need to be taxed, not the man at the door earning N70,000 monthly.
He faulted the concerns raised about the the timing and the speed of the bills.
According to him, whatever is causing economic and financial hemorrhage must be given the speed it requires.
He said that the tax reform bills would make more states’ internally generated revenue to improve, improving the lots of the people.
Okupe, however, called on the President to monitor all revenue- generated agencies to remove corruption and all practices capable of shortchanging the nation.
He said that with adequate technology in place ,the fight against corruption would be won and Nigerians would be free.
Okupe said that if Customs, Immigration, Nigerian Communications Technology, Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), NIMASA and other revenue -generating agencies employ emerging technologies, corruption would be fought to a standstill.
“When these reforms that Bola Tinubu is introducing, when they come on-stream, corruption will go,” he added.
NAN recalls that on Oct. 3, Tinubu had requested the national assembly to consider and pass the bills.
The bills comprise the Nigeria tax bill, Nigeria tax administration bill, Nigeria Revenue Service establishment bill, and the Joint Revenue Board establishment bill.
Speaking at the presidential media chat on Monday, Tinubu reiterated that the tax reforms were initiated to “eliminate colonial-based assumptions” in the country’s tax environment
(NAN)
