He said that the total collection up to Sept. 31 which has not been fully reconciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Customs is about N4.2 trillion, from this amount, oil-related taxes accounted for only 22 per cent which is N950 billion only, the non-oil taxes generated was within that period is N3.3 trillion.
“People are not willing to pay even when they are appointed as an agent of collection, whatever they have collected they find it difficult to remit.
“We assume that we are a rich country, I don’t think that is correct, we only have the potential to be rich, because we have a very huge population of about 200 million.
“If you look at it from the rate of taxes paid in Saudi Arabia with a population of 10 million people, the VAT rate is as high as 15 per cent and what we have in Nigeria is just 7.5 per cent,” Nami said.
He also said that Nigeria, an oil-producin country, could not be compared to a small country like Saudi Arabia, saying “we are still not there.”
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, urged citizens to always pay their taxes.
“The money from taxes will go a long way, by providing social amenities, among others.”
Ahmed said that efforts aimed at addressing revenue leakages include dimensioning cost of tax waivers and promoting policy dialogue and transparency around tax waiver regimes.
She also said that achieving government budget objectives requires bold, decisive and urgent actions.
“The government remains mindful of the need to provide safety nets to cushion the impact of reform measures on the vulnerable segments of the population.”