Paying tax not burden, but investment in collective future- Expert
By Vivian Emoni
Paying taxes should not be a burden but an investment to collective future, Mr Abdul-Kabir Opeyemi, an expert on Taxation and Revenue, said on Wednesday.
Opeyemi, Special Adviser on Taxation and Revenue to Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He emphasised the need to make the country’s tax system more transparent and accountable to Nigerians to boost confidence and voluntary compliance.
He said that Nigeria needed a tax system that incentivised investment, job creation, and economic diversification.
According to him, we should not see paying of taxes as a burden and stress, rather we should see it as an investment or contribution to our collective future.
“I want to use the opportunity to encourage our people to contribute their quota in order to assist the government to fulfill their developmental goals as promised.
“We want to take tax system to the next level, by investing heavily on infrastructure and sustaining the autonomy of Lagos internal revenue service.
“We also want to ensure that we deepen the technology used in monitoring revenue collection from all sources.
“An example is, integrating all revenue in generating unit which we call Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) into sharing data, intelligence and the likes,” he said.
Opeyemi said that the efforts would make the revenue a great deal as well as supporting the government to achieve its goals.
He said that the state was trying to widen the tax length to accommodate people that were not hitherto in the tax length before now.
He encouraged the taxpayers to have a change of mindset, adding that taxes play crucial role in building a better Nigeria and for generations to come.
“Tax payers need to see that their contributions are being used effectively for public services and infrastructural development.
“We are doing very well. We have doubled our revenue and are moving closer to our target,” he said. (NAN) (www.nan.ng)
Edited by Vivian Ihechu
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