Expert urges FG to expand tax net to reduce borrowings
A business analyst, Dr. Muda Yusuf, has advised the Federal Government to expand its tax net to reduce borrowings from foreign countries to boost the nation’s revenues.
Yusuf, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise(CPPE), gave the advice in an interview with journalists in Lagos on Thursday.
He said that revenues from tax net expansion could be used to fix decayed infrastructure.
According to him, bringing more eligible tax payers into the government tax net is imperative, to boost revenues and meet competing needs.
“It is challenging that many of the elites are not paying the right taxes in most states of the country.
“Revenue often gotten from taxes by the authorities is never adequate and not commensurate with the elites’ income and display of wealth,” he said.
He also suggested that the Federal Government could cut down the high cost of governance to reduce fiscal headwinds.
“Expenditure such as the overhead can be reduced and priority given to some critical projects.
“Capital component which deals with purchasing of vehicles, could be stepped down at the moment, and emphasis should be on fixing infrastructure” Yusuf said.
He noted that the Federal Government should enhance the real sector of the economy to spur growth.
“Incentivising the productive sectors will attract foreign investments into the country.
“Then government will be able to generate more revenue through its vibrant economy to provide public goods,” he said.
He noted that government could adopt more public private partnership approaches so as to bridge the many infrastructural need of the country.
Recall that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, said the Federal Government was awaiting consensus for it to sign a $3.3 billion loan agreement to execute 10 projects across the country.
The minister said this in Abuja during a town hall meeting on the achievements of the government in infrastructure development, organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture.
The Minister also informed the meeting that the government had executed 94.1 per cent of the 2021 budget in the areas of infrastructure and human capital development.
She said that as at November 2021, N12.56trillion had been spent out of the N13.57 trillion prorata budget.
She described the performance as a milestone.
