Senate to Debate Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bill

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Senate has received President Bola Tinubu’s communication seeking consideration and passage of the proposed Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Bill to align with ongoing financial reforms of the Federal Government and enhance efficiency in tax compliance.

The House of Representatives also received four bills forwarded by the President, including the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Establishment Bill and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill.

This comes after President Tinubu during his speech on Nigeria’s 64th Independence Anniversary on Tuesday (October 1) said some Economic Stabilisation Bills would be transmitted to the National Assembly.

“We are moving ahead with our fiscal policy reforms. To stimulate our productive capacity and create more jobs and prosperity, the Federal Executive Council approved the Economic Stabilisation Bills, which will now be transmitted to the National Assembly.

“These transformative bills will make our business environment more friendly, stimulate investment and reduce the tax burden on businesses and workers once they are passed into law,” he said.

Recently, the Chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, said the Withholding Tax Regulations 2024 has been gazetted.

“I do have some good news, the good news is that the withholding tax regulation has now been gazetted. So, the only reason it hasn’t been published today is because it is a public holiday, so first thing tomorrow you will see a copy of the gazette and that provides a lot of relief not just for manufacturers but also every other business in terms of taking away some of the burdens of funding their working capital,” Mr Oyedele said.

Nigeria has been seeking to harmonise its tax base as it has a tax-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of 10.8 per cent; comparatively, the average tax-to-GDP ratio for Africa is about 18 per cent.

According to Mr Oyedele last year, this is the basis for the target of 18 per cent and the estimated tax gap of N20 trillion.

“We intend to harmonise the fragmented revenue collection functions into one agency for each government. This is the case in many countries, including the leading tax regimes in Africa. This reform will help to improve efficiency and enable the agencies to focus on their primary mandates for the overall benefit of the economy,” he said.