Nigerian businesses under burden of over 60 taxes, govt says

The Nigerian government says the country seeks to cut the number of taxes at the federal, state and local government levels from about 62 to less than 10.

The country has officially more than 60 forms of tax and over 108 informal taxes that stifle businesses, and new reforms being worked out by a presidential panel seeks prune that to a single digit, the chairman of the committee said Tuesday.

“At the federal level, the list is somewhere close to 16 officially. At the state level 25, and local government 21,” said Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.

“But this is just the beginning of the story. The story is incomplete. Until you add the over 108 informal taxes collected all over the place, sometimes by non-state actors that have been empowered, either passively or actively by the government.”

Daily taxes

Mr Oyedele spoke in Abuja at the 53rd annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He said the number of taxes citizens and businesses pay rise daily and his committee’s plan is to reduce the tax burden across the country.

“In fact, we have bicycle tax, and wheelbarrow tax in Nigeria. I think if you’re looking for the definition of wickedness, it will be to find a man who is struggling to make ends meet pushing their wheelbarrow in the sun and say, ‘you have not paid your tax’,” he said.

“What I want and hope to achieve is the reduction of the number of taxes to less than 10. Yes, we want a single digit, and we want to cut down revenue collection agencies to one for each tier of government.

“With this, the federal government has one revenue collection agency, the same for state and local governments. So that they can focus on their primary mandate of making life easier for citizens,” he added.

Finance minister Wale Edun said on Tuesday that a comprehensive tax reform will be implemented from the committee’s work.

In April, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said its members were paying more than 30 different taxes, levies and fees to agencies of federal, state and local governments.