Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, said the administration of President Bola Tinubu would not impose higher tax rates on Nigerians.

He stated this via his official X page while answering Frequently Asked Questions on the objectives and work done by the committee so far.

Taiwo Oyedele affirmed that no plans to increase taxes, rather their aims is to reduce the burden on people.

His words, “We do not intend to introduce new taxes or impose higher tax rates. Rather, our mandate is to reduce the number of taxes and levies while harmonising revenue collection to reduce the burden on the people and businesses.

The objective is to avoid taxing investment, capital, production or poverty. We plan to review and re-enact the major tax laws in a holistic manner thereby limiting the necessity for frequent changes through annual finance acts.”

Speaking on how the committee aims to meet the 18% target while not increasing taxes, he said: “The average tax to GDP ratio for Africa excluding Nigeria is about 18%. This is the basis for the target of 18% and the estimated tax gap of N20 trillion.

There is a huge opportunity to generate revenue by leveraging technology and tax intelligence to close the tax gap. In addition, we will rationalize incentives, reduce the cost of collection, and optimise revenue from government assets and natural resources.

This way we can generate more revenue without introducing new taxes.”