Politics
A network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Tax Justice & Governance Platform (TJ & GP) on Wednesday sought gender-responsive tax reforms in Kaduna state.
At a two-day capacity building workshop for CSOs on advocacy for gender-responsive tax reforms, the Coordinator of TJ & GP, Mr Simeon Olatunde, emphasised the need for tax policies that consider the unique challenges faced by women.
Olatunde argued that the current tax system was disproportionately affecting women and exacerbating existing gender inequalities.
He stressed that gender-responsive tax reforms would promote fairness, equity, and economic empowerment for women.
The coordinator, therefore, said the workshop aimed to equip CSOs with the knowledge and skills necessary to advocate inclusive tax policies.
Olatunde also said that the engagement was to enhance the participants’ ability to identify and analyse gender gaps in the state’s tax systems, including policies, laws, and administrative processes.
He added that it was to build advocacy skills among women’s groups and CSOs for collectively engaging policymakers on gender-responsive tax reforms.
Olatunde equally said the workshop was to promote strategic partnerships among the stakeholders to advocate equitable and transformative tax policies.
He urged the state government to prioritise gender-responsive tax reforms, ensuring that tax policies address the specific needs and challenges of women.
“By promoting inclusive tax policies, we seek to contribute to a more equitable society, where women have equal opportunities to participate in the economy and benefit from tax policies,”Olatunde said.
In a keynote speech, Dr Saied Tafida, recommended adopting progressive, redistributive and gender equal taxation including new forms of direct taxation of capital and wealth combined with less reliance on consumption taxes.
Tafida is also the Regional Specialist, Tax for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Africa Sustainable Finance Hub.
He presented a paper titled: “The Role of Gender-Responsive Tax Reforms In Inclusive Development”.
He said that removing implicit and explicit gender bias and discrimination in tax policies would ensure that tax revenues were raised and spent in ways
that promote gender equality.
Tafida also recommended collection, availability and use of gender disaggregated data to model tax policy and good practice while ensuring a fair taxation of SMEs and the informal sector.
Also, Mrs Rebecca Sako-John, said tax laws, policies and administrative systems in the state seemed to follow the line of others in being gender blind or neutral.
This, she said, may have positive or negative implications for implementation.
According to her, less than one-fifth of Nigeria’s tax policies had undergone gender impact assessments.
Sako-John lamented that lots of practices and norms make unpaid work of women to be invisible in the tax system, thereby marking their economic contributions not valued.
“It is reported that absence of targeted tax incentives for women-owned businesses limits their growth potential and economic contributions.
”Tax reforms have to a large extent focused on raising revenue for the government to actualise its service delivery objectives,”she said.
Speaking on Kaduna State Tax (Codification and Consolidation ) Law 2020, Sako-John said the law failed to recognise the realities of women and persons with disabilities.
This was in terms of poor record keeping or documentation, factors driving business outcomes, access to information, financial inclusion and skills in ICT for inclusion in the tax nets.
She, however, commended the Kaduna State Internal Revenue Service for ensuring women representation on the Executive Management Committee, as well as in the State Development Levy Regulation Committee.
Sako-John said achieving gender equality in tax administration in the state had numerous benefits including fairness and increased tax compliance.
Others were improved revenue collection, empowerment of women, inclusive policy-making, and socio-economic development.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CSOs and other organisations present at the workshop included the Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD) and KADIRS.
Others were the Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM), the media and the Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC), among others.
The workshop was organised in partnership with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and supported by Christian Aid.(NAN)
A.I
Jan. 16, 2025
Tags: Dr Saied Tafida Mr Simeon Olatunde Tax Justice & Governance Platform TJ & GP
