Buhari directs all eligible citizens to pay tax

Precious Yusuf

President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,Muhammadu Buhari on Friday,October 7th, said efforts are being put in place to ensure all taxable Nigerians declare their incomes and pay the right taxes to the appropriate authorities.

Buhari made this known when he presented the 2023 Appropriation Bill of N20.52 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja.

The president identified revenue shortfall as one of the greatest threats to Nigeria’s fiscal viability. He said that special attention will also be given to revenue generating agencies to increase the income the country could raise.

“Revenue shortfalls remain the greatest threat to Nigeria’s fiscal viability. We have therefore accelerated efforts towards ensuring that all taxable Nigerians declare income from all sources and pay taxes due to the appropriate authorities. We are also monitoring the internally generated revenues of agencies of government to ensure they are appropriately accounted for and remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund,’’ he said.

Buhari made it known that he was pleased that the revenue collection and expenditure management reforms are already yielding positive results as reflected in non-oil revenue performance.

According to the president, continued implementation of revenue administration reforms and improving the collection efficiency was a step in the right direction. 

“As we seek to grow our government revenues, we must also focus on the efficiency of utilisation of our limited resources. Critical steps we are taking include immediate implementation of additional measures towards reducing the cost of governance and the discontinuation of fuel subsidy in 2023 as announced earlier.

We are however mindful of the fact that reducing government spending too drastically can be socially destabilising, and so will continue to implement programmes to support the more vulnerable segments of society,’’ he said.

The National assembly had approved the medium-term expenditure framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, — parameters on which the 2023 budget will be framed.

While presenting the details, Buhari said the 2023 transition budget was designed to address critical issues and lay a solid foundation for the incoming administration and help them transition without any problems.