They made this known on Thursday during the launching of Professor Williams’ book ‘The Taxation Pendula,’ at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
This followed the recent move by the Federal Government to get a fresh $400m loan from the World Bank for the conditional cash transfer to 15 million households as one of the measures to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians.
The PUNCH reports that the $400m will bring to $1.2bn the amount that the Federal Government is borrowing from the World Bank for the cash transfer as it had earlier secured a loan of $800m for the same purpose.
President Bola Tinubu announced the conditional cash transfer to 15 million households in a nationwide address to commemorate the country’s independence on October 1 as part of measures to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on petrol, which has led to an astronomic rise in the cost of living.
He also announced that the Federal Government would commence the payment of N25,000 monthly to 15 million households for three months from October to December 2023.
Speaking on Thursday, the SGF, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Political and Economic Affairs, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Nko Esuabana, said all tiers of government need to be vested in taxing citizens, while citizens must be committed to paying taxes as and when due to avert a situation whereby the government would be worried about raising funds for projects.
“All the tiers of government, the federal, state, and local governments; we all need to be vested in how to tax ourselves and pay taxes to all the authorities that we need to pay taxes to; not when we need something we’d now stand up to say how can we raise money?” the PS noted, speaking on behalf of the SGF.
Also speaking, the author, Professor Williams noted that the book explains the intricacies of tax laws, the need for citizens and corporations to pay taxes, and the actions expected of the government in utilising the taxes collected from citizens and corporate bodies.
He revealed that ‘The Taxation Pendula’ would educate citizens and businesses on how to pay taxes, benefit from paying taxes, and avoid breaking tax laws.
He added, “You don’t pay tax from what you don’t have, you pay tax from what you have; hence taxes cannot be used to impoverish citizens as there’s equity in taxation. The government of President Bola Tinubu is putting a lot of effort into the issue of taxation in Nigeria. There’s now a committee working to harmonize the issue of taxation. If the government has a good tax mercenary, it has no need to borrow money. It’s just the way the church is funded with tithes,”
While reacting to questions from journalists over the recent move by the FG to borrow $400m from the World Bank, Professor Willams noted, “In a particular economy, the product of the people’s wealth is the function of the taxes they pay. So, there’s no need to borrow money to be extravagant, you borrow money for the needs of the people. The tax laws are on par, we don’t need to increase taxes, if we’re able to understand and operate adequately, we’ll have enough.”
