Education
Participants at the monthly Policy Dialogue on the Next Level in Abuja have urged the Federal Government to introduce property tax towards generating necessary funds for its critical projects.
In a resolution at the end of the dialogue, they called on government to strengthen the country’s tax laws to ensure necessary funding for its projects.
The participants observed that dwindling oil revenue had made it difficult for government to fund critical projects.
“Federal government must copy from other countries where property tax plays critical role in revenue generation.
“In Britain for instance, property tax provides large chunk of government revenue, Nigerian government can copy from that by introducing property tax in the country.
“You find Nigerians building large estates across the country without paying tax, this is more pronounced in Abuja where you have large number of unoccupied houses all over the city.
“Taxing those houses will help generate fund for projects in the country,” they said.
The participants also urged government to adopt horizontal personal income tax system in the country to increase income tax revenue.
“Government should adopt horizontal tax system like other countries, this will ensure that high income earners pay more tax, while low income earners pay less.
“This will increase government revenue base and ensure more funding for critical areas of the economy,” they said.
The participants also urged government to strengthen anti corruption agencies in the country for better results.
“Strengthening anti corruption agencies will help recover more stolen funds that could be channeled into critical projects in the country,” they said.
The participants also advised government to enhance the operation of revenue generating agencies by improving their funding, infrastructure and welfare of their personnel.
They also urged government to harmonise its economic policies to prevent conflicts.
The participants also urged government to invest in human capacity development to increase productivity of Nigerians.
Some of the participants at the event included university lectures, entrepreneurs, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), representatives of anti corruption agencies, the media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Alhaji Bapetel Hassan, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Policy Development and Analysis and convener of the dialogue, said the object was to get Nigerian’s inputs on government policies towards better service delivery.
“We decided to invite Nigerians from different spheres of life to discuss on policies and programmes of government to get their inputs for better service delivery.
“We would continue with the dialogue on monthly basis,” he said.
Hassan said the outcome of the dialogue would be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for action. (NAN)
– Dec. 1, 2019 @ 15:12 GMT |
Tags: Participants at a Policy Dialogue task FG on Property Tax
