Nigeria Tax System Needs Overhaul

Halliru Godel, a member of the Association for the Emancipation of Rights of Small Scale Industrialists, has called for overhauling the taxation system in Nigeria to fast track economic development, Nigeria News Agency reported. Godel said that taxation would play a crucial role in the development of the Nigerian economy if properly harnessed. “Taxation serves as a source of employment generation and innovation as well as economic consolidation, which alleviate poverty and enhance national growth. “It is one of the factors that constitute small businesses; when a business flourishes, the economy flourishes as well,” he said. Godel said that despite the imposition of tax regime by the government on personal income earners, companies, importers, exporters and inventors, “it is being considered as voluntary contribution and not an obligation’’. He said that business and tax policies were interrelated, adding that if one was affected, the other would also be affected.