Tax reform: We’re doing surgery… it will come with some pain, says Taiwo Oyedele

Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, says reforms have become difficult to effect owing to citizens’ lack of trust in the government and its policies.

Speaking on Tuesday at a colloquium held in Abuja to mark the 50th birthday of Hadiza Bala Usman, Oyedele named trust deficit as one of the issues hampering the process to reform the country’s tax laws.

“Reforms are hard to get around, and tough reforms are harder because they involve interest. I think it’s even more complex in Nigeria for three reasons. Number one is that there is a low trust. The trust in government and within government is very low,” he said.

“The second reason is that the tax culture in Nigeria is very weak. A lot of Nigerians have no idea what taxes they are supposed to be paying, even under the old law, and they haven’t been paying them.

“Suddenly, there is a national awareness, and they just say, the people have come with taxes all over the place when actually, what the government is doing is to reduce those taxes they have been paying, and harmonise them.”

Oyedele said that for reforms to be introduced and successfully implemented, leaders must deploy courage alongside political will.

“You need that courage to push through, you need the courage to take risks, because it’s very risky,” he said.

“There is political risk, there is economic risk, there is reputational risk. You need to see all manner of names they call me now online. There are even threats, death threats. So you have to have the courage to do all of that.

“What we have been doing all along, all my adult life with the tax system, was pain reliever. It hasn’t taken us far. It can’t take us far. Now we’re doing the surgery. It’s going to come with some pain, but that’s the only right thing to do.

“Overall, my view is that Nigeria is making progress, the sort of progress I haven’t seen in my adult life. And if we can stay the course and see this through, we’ll all be better for it.”

Muhammad Abdullahi, deputy governor, economic policy directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said reforms often fail because of an inability to translate vision into durable systems that can withstand pressure, political cycles, and short-term public anxiety.

Abdullahi praised President Bola Tinubu’s administration for improving the macroeconomic environment, expressing optimism for complementary growth in the micro sectors.(TheCable)