……Call for increase tax on alcohol, cigarettes
…..Implore FG to assign trustworthy persons as heads
of revenue generating agencies
In the federal government bid to accomplish her Next
Level Agenda, a promise made to the electorates and Nigerians alike, diverse
stakeholders from different walks of life who converged on Abuja recently have
called for the appointment of trustworthy, down-to-earth and persons with
requisite merit to man government Revenue Generating Agencies (RGAs).
The above counsel was part of the many views,
suggestion and recommendations put forward by experts and stakeholders in Abuja
at the first Monthly Policy Dialogue on funding the Federal Government’s next
level agenda which was organized by the office of the Senior Special Adviser
(SSA) to the President on Policy Development and Analysis, Alhaji Ibrahim
Bapetel.
Other recommendations at the conference are; encouraging
concession and creation of department to act as an institutional monitor and
evaluator of RGAs, Anti Corruption Agencies (ACAs) amongst others to gauge
their performances.
The stakeholders who were made up of economic
experts, representatives of NLC, MAN, TUC and academicians, counseled that
borrowing should be for income generating infrastructure, while money recovered
by ACAs should be judiciously used in infrastructural development.
They also called for reduction in high cost of
governance and tasked government to make sure that service delivery was
consistent with taxes.
While appealing to government against removing fuel
subsidy, as its removal will increase the sufferings of Nigerians, the
stakeholders called for the repairs or construction of new refineries to
contain unnecessary importation of fuel.
Earlier, chairman of the session, Prof. Sadeeue
Abubakar, urged participants to proffer solutions and index for funding next
level agenda.
Prince Tonye Princewill a chieftain of APC who is also
an entrepreneur was a stakeholder at the conference he said, “first of all we
have to keep subsidies until we have refineries in good working order. Lebanon
and Iraq are examples of hurried revenue generation gone wrong. First we should
talk about increased VAT on things like alcohol, cigarettes, fizzy drinks; then
we should talk about VAT on luxury items. Road tax is also an option, but we
have to show Nigerians what the money will be used for as a way of building
confidence and increasing government revenue.”
Ahmad Sajoh, former commissioner for information,
Adamawa state and Compere for the event said, “We are bringing sound people
from all of these diverse areas, so that we can interrogate the process of
funding the next level agenda. There would be no need to bring you all out here
if there was no intention to use your input. In the coming months, you will see
the impact of your contributions. Of that I have no doubt.”
Marco Hernadez, a lead economist from the World Bank
was of the opinion that growth needs to be funded, part of it from the public
sector, part of it from the private sector as well. But certainty was key to
encouraging investment. Multiple taxation, the absence of a PIB bill, state
government vs Federal government collaboration, etc can help
In his speech as he welcomed participants and later
, Alhaji Ibrahim Bapetel, said the policy dialogue was part of procedures to
obtain ideas and policy suggestions that would assist the APC government led by
President Muhammadu Buhari to affect the lives of Nigerians in a positive way.
“So many changes have taken place and so many ideas
have now evolved. So what do we do? We cannot sit on our own; I think we agree
that don’t have all the knowledge. We felt it is very necessary we start up a
continued conversation with relevant stakeholders; with this we can come up
with a new initiative that works. We have heard you loud and clear. ” Bapetel
said
Revenue generating agencies singled out by the
stakeholders for operational reforms include the Federal Inland Revenue
Service, the NNPC and the Nigerian
Customs Service.
Focal point of the conference include presentation
of papers titled “Funding the Next Level Agenda: Challenges and Prospects” and
“Funding Next Level Agenda: Overcoming the Challenges of Corruption and Abuse
of Public Office in Nigeria” by Prof. Jide Oladipo and Dr Elvis Oglafa
respectively.
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