The Tax Reform Bill sent to the Federal House of Assembly by the Executive Arm of government for easy administration of tax regime in Nigeria has become a subject of controversy in the recent times. While the argument rages, the presidency has maintained that the reforms are designed to simplify the tax system going forward and that the whole essence is to ease the burden of the poor and eliminate multiple taxation. Those who kicked against these reforms, including serving law makers expressed fear that a section of the country will be shortchanged if the bills are passed into law. This mutual suspicion in our body polity has remained and may continue.
This is why the country has not made much progress in terms of improving the lives of the citizenry because each time the political class tries to sway the attention of the generality of Nigerians on issues that seek to impact on the people, division sets in. The ongoing debate concerning the tax bill exposed, unfortunately, where we stand as a nation given that those who were elected to govern us and to pursue programmes and policies that would create wealth for all instead, are talking about a section of the country, to score cheap political goals.
Suffice to say that those who opposed the bill are not doing so for the interest of their people as they claimed, but just to get at government to settle political differences, especially those said to have been shut out in the scheme of things by the administration. From what we know now, the tax bill made provisions for the poor and business people in the tax reform. For example, those whose take home annually is less than one million naira are completely exempted from paying income tax while those earning above fifty million naira yearly would pay up to 25 percent income tax rate against what the status quo is today. There is also a provision in the bill that states that medium and large companies equally will have corporate taxes dropped from 30% to 25% by 2026.
The trouble with our society is that good ideas are not usually allowed to flourish, owing to vested interest. Commentators on national issues, even tax experts, have applauded the Executive arm of government on this particular bill and insisted that government should ensure that the tax bill is signed into law. It’s important to note here that every segment of our society has what God blessed it with. The challenge here is for us all as a people to think and dig deep, and also translate these God-given resources to reality rather than playing politics with everything. Yes, people are entitled to their opinions, but what is germane here is that Nigeria must win this battle against poverty through innovative ideas like the tax bill, never thought through by previous administrations.
All the complaints about the bill are expected and should be looked into by those concerned, in fact, by every segment of the society. In a democracy also, the minority should have their say while a majority indeed, are entitled to have their way. In this case, the important thing is for Nigerians to win this tax bill debate, and for the people to begin to enjoy the benefits as we are meant to understand. The idea of a particular zone of the country feeling cheated already on an issue of national interest not even signed into law is not the way to go at all in a democracy.
Divergent views over some provisions in the Tax Reform Bill should not be allowed to truncate this bill. The poor and likewise the rich need reform, so also business people, especially now that the people are crying against double taxation. We encourage the government to pursue this bill to its logical conclusion, even as we advise government to listen to various shades of opinions before passing the bill into law.
