“Let Poor Breathe”: Tinubu Govt Speaks on Plan To Generate Revenue From Wealthy Nigerians

• The federal government has turned its attention to wealthy Nigerians to generate much-needed revenue
• The plan is to tax wealthy individuals who, over the years, have cheated the system and evaded tax payments
• President Bola Tinubu is determined to improve Nigeria's revenue to address the country's myriad challenges

The administration of President Bola Tinubu has announced plans to impose taxes on wealthy Nigerians to generate revenue.

Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to him, the tax measures were part of the government's commitment to overhaul its tax system to shift more of the burden to wealthy citizens while cutting corporate taxes.

He also explained that the move is part of Tinubu's to lift the country’s tax take to 18% of gross domestic product within three years from 11% now.

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His words:

“Make the rich pay what is fair and those who are too poor can be protected. We also envisage a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to below the current effective rate of more than 40% to help boost business.”

"Nigeria’s tax revenue as a share of GDP is a third of the 34% average for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

"Among 4 million registered firms, less than 250,000 actively pay tax, while fewer than a quarter of the 41 million registered people pay income tax"

Taiwo's proposition resonates with Tinubu's 'Let the poor breathe' June 12 speech, which was widely circulated on social media and went viral.

FG plans for the wealthy Nigerians

Taiwo further noted that the goal is to slash the number of taxes down to single digits, reducing the burden on the poor.

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According to him, the plan is:

“We just identified the top eight giving us 99% of the taxes, so we keep them and the rest we get rid of"

On further plans to boost revenue, he said a tax amnesty programme will be created.

Taiwo added:

"If people know that government knows their income, where they are; if they haven’t been paying their taxes, if we declare an amnesty they will show up"

Data shows Tinubu's govt borrowed N1.5trn from World Bank in 4 months

In another report, Legit.ng reported that since coming into power, the administration of President Bola Tinubu has borrowed over N1.5 trillion from the World Bank.

The loans were to take care of various projects, which include girls' education and women's empowerment.

World Bank loans to countries are at interest rates lower than the rates on loans from commercial banks.

Source: Legit.ng